Mitsuki's Adventures
by Flamist.Rika
Summary: Most families have the same dynamic. One father, One mother, and a child or two. And Mitsuki sees this reflected in the families of his teammates- but not his own, which consists currently of himself and his father. It shouldn't be so hard to get his parent's back together especially with the help of his friends, right?
1. My Dad

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 1- Me and My Dad

"Mitsuki, come on now, you can't afford to be any later." A male voice called up from the floor below as a boy stood in front of his mirror, fixing his obi belt to properly hold his kimono together as his father called up for him.

Right now, he could just see his father standing at the staircase, wondering if he's come down or not, but not particularly bothering to ascend to find out. So Mitsuki fixed his blue-white hair and exited his room before calling back, "I'm coming down." As he descended the staircase.

As expected, his father stood at the stairs, watching him come down before frowning slightly, "Your hair-" He said with a slight note of concern, reaching out to fix it as Mitsuki stopped before him and answered,

"It's fine, Father." His father pulled his hand back and sighed as he put the same hand on it's corresponding cheek and gave a wry smirk,

"So content to have a disheveled appearance when you should look your best, hm?" His father asked as Mitsuki grabbed a few snacks from the kitchen cabinets, "Mitsuki." He said sternly and his son stopped and closed the cabinets, smiling back at his parent,

"I think I'm ready." He volunteered and his father nodded, tying his black hair back into a low ponytail before the two of them left the house.

"Are you nervous?" His father inquired as they walked towards the exit of the complex and the boy looked up at him,

"Not particularly, no. However…" The boy said quietly as they walked before looking up at the golden, snake-like eyes of his father. "Do you think… that maybe, Mom will be in Konoha?" His father's eyes darkened a bit at the question before breaking the shared gaze and waving a dismissive hand,

"I doubt it, although I wouldn't know." His father, Orochimaru, answered vaguely to hint that further probing by his son would lead him exactly where every other conversation about his mother led him; Nowhere. Mitsuki looked ahead with an air of disappointment and Orochimaru took notice of it before adding on after a few seemingly long moments, "You know, after you finish your training in the Ninja Academy and become a Genin, many of your missions taken by your team will involve travelling. Perhaps you'll come across her?" His son looked up at him; and though Mitsuki was a calm and quiet boy, his eyes sparkled with glee and- hope. Leaving a sour taste in his father's mouth.

"Do you really believe that, Father?" He asked with a tinge of excitement in his voice and his father smiled at his son's refreshed vigor.

"I do, but only if you work hard. Go on now, you'll be too late to enroll if you dawdle any longer." His father told him as they stopped at the gates leading out of the compound. Mitsuki ran off and his father waved after his fleeting form light-heartedly.

His father, however, went back inside the building and wandered with purpose down the halls before coming into a room and opening the door. As the door opened, it shed light into the room from the hallway which illuminated the large portrait on the far wall; or rather, a painting. One done with masterful skill of Orochimaru's own hand.

It was a painting of a woman, the main focal point, whose back was to the artist, sitting in a room, long hair pulled over to one side in sweeping waves and waterfalling curls that all seemed to intertwine of a silvery color. She was glancing back at the viewer with enamored eyes of steel-blue, her back completely bare of anything covering as she moved her hair to the side, hands combing it all into obedience. Orochimaru sighed as he stood in the room and admired the artwork; one of only pieces he still had of Mitsuri's mother without including her son.

Even now, he had perfectly captured the predator gaze of pure danger and lust she had in her eyes that night when she draw her, that it still made him shiver a bit.

Several months had gone by and Mitsuki was adjusting well to the Ninja Academy in Konoha, setting along alright with his classmates who seemed off-put by his hair color and his strange yellow eyes. But he didn't mind, he enjoyed learning and knowing everything he could.

However, graduation from the class was next week and though Mitsuki was looking forward to it, he was not looking forward to his teacher requesting to see him after the day's class was done.

"Mitsuki, you're supposed to graduate next week-" His teacher said as Mitsuki looked down at his following words, "Yet you've failed to turn in the assignment about your family. I've tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, because you've been on top of everything else; but if you don't turn in this assignment, I will be forced to hold you back from graduating." Mitsuki looked up at his teacher and frowned. His Father would be greatly disappointed and displeased if he didn't become a Genin after travelling to Konoha to attend the Ninja Academy specifically there. He couldn't even begin to think of how his Mother would react. "What do you have to say for yourself, Mitsuki?"

"I… lost the paper, Sensei." Mitsuki lied, "I'll get it finished, but… I forgot what it was about." His teacher sighed and got up from his desk, going to a filing cabinet of 3 oak drawers, pulling the top one out. He quickly thumbed through the folders before opening one and pulling out a piece of paper. The teacher shut the drawer and walked back over to Mitsuki and handed the paper to him,

"Write about your family history or make a collage, you have to have both your mom and dad's names, their birthdays, and as many relatives as you can fit on the page." The Teacher explained and Mitsuki took the paper gingerly from his hands, "Include a picture of them on the paper if you don't want to make a collage. Everyone is presenting the morning of your Graduation, but I expect this to be turned in _before_. Alright?" Mitsuki nodded solemnly and the teacher sighed, "You're dismissed. Have a good day." Mitsuki bowed and grabbed his things and left with the paper in tow.

~O~

His Father was a bit surprised with him, "You didn't do an assignment, Mitsuki? How odd." Mitsuki hadn't revealed the nature of the beast yet to his father, who stood in the kitchen of the small living area, putting a wet dish in the dish drain to air-dry. His son waited until he turned off the water and shuffled as his father wiped his hands on a towel, "Well, what is it? Perhaps I could help, hm? Wouldn't want you being held back." He offered as he reached up and untied his long black hair from the messy bun he had put it up into, to keep his hair from getting on the dishes while he cleaned them.

"It's...It's a assignment about my family." Mitsuki summerized as he handed the paper to his father; who took it and looked it over silently. "Mom's not around right now, so I thought...I'd wait until she came back." His father looked at him past the paper,

"She's not around right now." Orochimaru echoed questioningly before he pulled out a chair from the table and sat down, casting a quick glance at the third seat at the table that held no one for quite some time. He looked back at the paper and produced a pen, filling out his side of the paperwork as Mitsuki moved closer to hover. His Father hesitated when the end of the pen floated over the empty area labeled 'My Mother's side', headed by a blank area with two prominent lines that were labeled 'My mom's name' and 'my mom's birthday' underneath them respectively. "Perhaps it's too much to ask for, but…" Mitsuki's words make his father look at him attentively, "Can you tell me why, Mom isn't here?"

Orochimaru didn't answer, and instead averted the topic completely as he asked, "When do you need this done by?"

"How much longer are you going to keep avoiding talking to me?" Mitsuki asked bluntly, "I'm old enough to understand, maybe not everything, but most of it." He assured and his father stood up from the table and pushed the chair in, a tall-tale sign that he had finished and he was going to leave. And he started to before Mitsuki blurted out something obscene; "Did you kill her?" His father whipped around on him with a flash of anger in his features that Mitsuki had never witnessed in all his 12 years.

"Of course not!" Orochimaru hissed before getting a hold of himself, "Your mother...it's...She just…" He rubbed his neck as he tried to think of how to explain the situation to his son and was grasping for the right words. "She loves you, Mitsuki, so very, very much." Orochimaru finally started and watched his son's face, "Your Mother loves you more than she ever loved me, but… her and I didn't work out."

"Didn't you think to try for my sake?" Mitsuki asked softly before running up the stairs and vanishing as Orochimaru sighed.

It was better to have told his son that lie, than tell him the truth. That he had toyed and played with his mother and teased and taunted her with the one thing he'd never wanted to give her- and she had left them both behind because of his father's mind-games.


	2. My Mom

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 2 - My Mom

Mitsuki came down the stairs the next morning to the kitchen, expecting to see his father around as he always was; but he wasn't there. However, breakfast had already been plated for the boy and was awaiting him patiently alongside a glass of milk, and the dishes used to make it had already been cleaned and put up to dry. It wasn't a common occurrence for his father to be absent in the mornings, but it was rare enough to not go unnoticed.

He pulled out the chair and sat down, helping himself to breakfast after looking to the drying rack. A single plate resided in front of a few other utensils and pans. A sign that his father had already eaten and Mitsuki was more than willing to start eating after seeing it. His father boasted that breakfast was the most important meal of the day and it wasn't one to be overlooked. Even the best of shinobi faltered in strength if they missed the meal. But still-

Mitsuki missed the days where he's share it with his mother. Even if his father wasn't around as much as he was now, his mom always seemed ot know exactly when to start cooking so that it would be ready for the both of them right as he came down the stairs in the morning.

When he came back from the fond memory to reality, he noticed a piece of paper to the left of the meal as he nibbled on some toast. Then it dawned on him what it was and he smiled happily and ate with earnest.

It was the history report that he needed to turn in at the end of the week to graduate. And it had been completed- mostly. A small picture had been glued to the beginning of each side that was meant to be headed by pictures of his father and mother. To the left, was a small photo of his father and underneath he had written his name, Orochimaru, and his own birthday (without the year. he had always been 'forgetful' about adding the year). And to the right?

There was a small photo of a beautiful woman that Mitsuki instantly recognized by her steel-grey eyes and her silvery long hair. Her name had been written in his father's handwriting and he had filled out her birthday without the year as well. Mitsuki didn't touch the paper until he had finished all of his breakfast and put the used dishes in the sink to be washed, before picking it up and staring at it in quiet awe.

The line under her picture read 'Midori le Noir'. And his father had written her birthday to be the 22nd of March. Mitsuki wore a smile the whole way to school and proudly handed the paper over to his teacher.

"I knew you could get it done, Mitsuki. Good job-" The teacher said before stopping mid-sentence as he looked at the paper, "Where are the years your parents were born?" The boy looked down,

As Mitsuki tried to think of something to say, a voice came out from behind him and a hand rested gently on his left shoulder, "He's been on top of all his other assignments, perhaps you could cut him a break because his father and I forget our own birth year amid our busy schedules?" The female voice said and Mitsuki watched the teacher who nodded in agreeance, before he looked up and tried to hide his excitement as best as he could.

His mother stood right next to him, flashing him a smile when she noticed he was looking at her, "I don't see why not. Will you and his Father be at the Graduation Ceremony?" The teacher asked and his mother turned her attention back to the man,

"Of course. We wouldn't miss it. Since I'm here, is there any time of paperwork I should fill out?" She inquired and the teacher shook his head, "Then excuse us, Sensei, we'll be on our way." With that, Mitsuki left the room ahead of his mother who calmly followed after him and shut the door behind them. "Hi Mikki." She said and Mitsuki hugged her tightly,

"Mom, you're back!" He said and she hugged him back with a smile and a light-hearted laugh.

Never had Mitsuki noticed that his mother was far too beautiful a woman to ever have even been remotely in his father's league. He knew them both as they were; his mother and his father. But that never stopped him from thinking his mother was pretty and his father handsome to some degree, as all children thought of their parents for a while.

"So I guess it was a good think I came to visit you in your class." His mom laughed, a joyous and illuminating sound to any ear drum that could hear it, as she stood up straight.

"The teacher said I couldn't graduate if I didn't turn in my family assignment, but Father forgot to write in your birth years." Mitsuki explained and his mother smirked,

"That sounds like him, alright. Have you eaten, Mikki?" She replied and her son shook his head before she smiled, "Let's go get something to eat then."

"Do you think you could come home and make dinner tonight too?" Mitsuki asked anxiously as she smiled and listened to him patiently, a strange cloth folded over her arms, "I miss your cooking."

"I don't see why not." His mother replied and they headed out of the building as she voiced, "Have you been keeping on top of your training, Mikki? And how about after lunch, we stop by the market to pick up things for dinner, hm?" Mitsuki was excited by the questions and just his mother being, well, there. He took her hand as they walked, unabashed by how it may look to anyone around them. If it wasn't socially acceptable for a boy to hold his mom's hand, he didn't care.

"I have been working very hard and Father says that I've made great progress." Mitsuki said before adding, "I'd like stew for dinner! With lots of meat." His mother laughed again,

"Stew it is, darling." She said and held her son's hand with another warm and affectionate smile. Which was infectious as her son shared the smile.

~O~

Orochimaru sighed as he looked in the cabinets about the kitchen before reaching in and pulling out an empty box. An empty box. "Maybe he forgot?" He mused quietly to himself before tossing it into the recycling bin- with the several other empty boxes his son had carelessly left in the cabinets. As he stared at the boxes that had piled up, he highly doubted his son forgot to remove them; and then he wondered why he was taking the empty boxes out- "Oh. Clever." He mused aloud as the door unlocked and he looked over to see his son open the door,

"I'm home!" Mitsuki said with a bit more enthusiasm than usual and his father smirked,

"Welcome home, son." Orochimaru started and added, "Mistuki, we need to talk about these empty boxes you're leaving in... the...cabinet…" He trailed off as a strikingly familiar woman entered the home after his son, shutting the door behind herself casually and took off her shoes. Mitsuki went into the cabinet next to the door and pulled out her hair of house slippers that had been tucked into a sealed box but never really thrown out. As if someone knew she'd come back to use them, just not when. Mistuki's Mother met his Father's gaze for a solid moment but turned her attention back to her son without a single word between them.

"Mom came to my school and talked to the teacher, since you forgot to write the birth years of you and mom." Mitsuki told his dad as he went over to the recycling bin, "She said she'd make dinner tonight!" To emphasize, his Mother lifted up the two armfuls of bags she was carrying before setting them on the kitchen table, as Mitsuki picked up the recycling bin and looked at his Father. "What were you saying, Father?" Orochimaru looked at his son amid his shocked daze,

"You...can't leave empty boxes in the cabinet." His Father finished and Mitsuki nodded,

"I'm sorry if I did." Mitsuki said before turning and leaving the house with the recycling bin to take it out; leaving his estranged parents to themselves.

They didn't say anything to one another for several tentative minutes, but that didn't stop his Mother, Midori, from unpacking the grocery bags and putting them in their rightful places, moving the vegetables to the left side of the sink. She opened a drawer and pulled out a cutting board and a knife before setting them on the counter. "Why are you here?" Orochimaru finally asked and Midori paused a moment,

"Mikki wanted me to make stew." She said simply as she turned the faucet on and started washing off the vegetables,

"You know that's not what I'm talking about." Orochimaru said as she moved closer and she turned to him,

"And you know what I'm not talking about? This. Any of it. With you." She said frigid and firm, "Why don't you go slither away to your lab and reappear when dinner's done, hm? It's a technique you seemed to have mastered for all the other family dinners." Midori offered and Orochimaru almost reacted had he not remembered that it was from his mother, that his own son got his frankness.

However, it had yet to be determined if Mitsuki had also inherited his mother's sharp eyes for perception. An ability that she got from her own mother- a woman Orochimaru had met with briefly who instantly revealed the Sannin for everything he was with a sickly-sweet smile before barring him from their family estates. A bitter memory, for as he recalled Midori had been carrying their child at that time; and she too, was turned out for having chosen to go against her family's wishes and keep the child.

He tried to change the subject to something where she would soften enough to talk to him without venom, though he knew from their years together that it was a defensive action. "I deserved that, yes, but come now; we're adults, let's be cordial at least for Mitsuki." Orochimaru said and saw her tense a moment before relaxing as Mitsuki returned and se the recycle bin back in it's rightful place.

"Can I help with dinner now?" Mitsuki asked his mother anxiously and she paused ot look at him,

"I don't know, did you wash your hands and take out the recycling like you're supposed to?" She asked and Mitsuki turned and went down the hall to enter the bathroom right off the kitchen, to the right of the staircase, and washed his hands, before coming back out and nodded up at her, "Alright. Could you rinse off the veggies, Mikki?" She asked and he nodded again, tying back his kimono sleeves before turning on the water to the sink, "When you're done, pass them over here and I'll cut them up."

"Can I help cut them too?" Mitsuki asked as Orochimaru watched and his mother agreed, "Could you get the pot, Dad?" He blinked in surprise but didn't give anymore outward reaction other than a calm smile as he went into one of the lower cabinets to retrieve the pot they needed.

Midori moved over a bit to give him room as the large L-shaped kitchen counter space began to feel as it did when Orochimaru had first introduced his young son and his mother to the house; cramped with merely 3 people in it. Aside from the casual talking needed to prepare and cook a meal efficiently, she didn't speak to him and Orochimaru didn't bother her about it.

He had always been inquisitive and wanted knowledge. It was no different here. He had so many questions for her and wanted to ask them all- but it wasn't the time and it wasn't the place. Perhaps this time, if he played his cards right, she'd stay. His son had changed from a happy child who boasted his mother's contagious smile when she was a constant in their household, to one so somberly showed emotion since she had left.

She set the table as she normally did and they sat down and ate; as a family. Mitsuki openly expressed how much he had missed her cooking before quickly adding on that he liked his father's cooking as well- but it wasn't a secret that Orochimaru knew how to work a laboratory yet had no idea how to work a kitchen. He had managed though, after many failed attempts and many more less-than-appetizing meals. But he wouldn't allow himself to mirror his son's vocal appreciation, even if he fully-backed it. Midori smiled and thanked her son for the compliment before Mitsuki started up the dinner conversation for the night with his mother's boldness, "Mom, I'm going to be graduating from the Ninja Academy in a couple days. You'll be there, right?" She smiled,

"Of course I will be there, Mikki, it's your big day." Midori told him and Mitsuki smiled, "Speaking of things like that, I actually brought you back something. I meant to give it to you earlier, but you can wait until after dinner, right?" Mitsuki turned his head ot look at the folded up black cloth that was near the entrance, on the floor with his mother's purse.

"Hm." He affirmed with a nod before Mitsuki voiced, "Are you going to stay until the graduation ceremony, mom? There's a festival afterwards to celebrate- could you stay until after the festival?" His mother laughed at his questioned a bit and gestured to his food,

"Eat, dear." She said and he started to help himself again as she carefully answered his questions, "I don't see why not, but do you even have a proper kimono for the festival, Mikki?" Her son raised his arms to show oww his pale-blue-and-dark-blue kimono that he wore and she frowned a bit, "You can't expect to impress by wearing the same outfit everyday, dear." She turned to Orochimaru who had paid attention to the table conversation though he hadn't been pulled into it- until now. "Please tell me he has other kimonos." Orochimaru helped himself to some of his water as he stalled for time before he set it down and readied another spoonful of stew for himself. "Oro." Her nickname for him came past her lips with a sternness that she used to never mix with the name.

"He only wanted that one, so I didn't see a point to get him others." Orochimaru said simply as he looked at her, "He didn't seem to want any others." Midori looked away from him and to their son with a sigh,

"We'll go shopping tomorrow and get you a new kimono for the festival." Midori told her son, who questioned the use of a new kimono when he already had one, "You're a growing boy, Mitsuki, and you're going to outgrow your clothes as fast as you get them. Besides- you're coming of age where girls will start to notice you, and if you go around wearing the same clothes every year, they'll lose interest." Mitsuki blushed as his mom added on with a teasing smile, "Girls love boys who know how to dress." Even Orochimaru laughed at his son's protest that he wasn't interested in impressing girls and when his son looked to him to back his claim, Orochimaru nodded,

"Your mother is right, Mitsuki, girls tend to notice it faster than we do." Orochimaru said as he drank some more of his tea, while Mitsuki looked at his Mother.

"Is that what made you start talking to dad?" Mitsuki asked and she stopped laughing and thought about it,

"Well...actually, yes, it was." Midori said after a few moments and the two men at the table looked at her as she recounted, "You know, your dad is quite the fashionable guy when he wants to be. When I first saw him, he was wearing...a long-sleeved, black leather jacket with all these belts on it, and these really cool grey pants." Mitsuki was enchanted with the memory and Orochimaru grimaced as he remembered exactly that one point in time.

 _When he had "borrowed" a jacket from an ex-lover as well as her motorcycle to quickly get away from her, and drove it across country lines. He stopped off at some village and took off the heavy helmet that he wasn't used to wearing- and happened to look across the street as a glimmer of something shining and silver caught his eye._ "What were you wearing, Mom?" Mitsuki asked his mother and Orochimaru was pulled back from the faded, movie-reel like memory that still played out vividly in his head.

 _Of a girl with summer-tanned skin_ , "She was wearing a white sun-hat with a plum-colored ribbon," _Her steel-grey eyes piercing straight into him. Like two pieces of carved ice that somehow contained a fire in their depths. Her_ \- "Pale pink sundress with purple and blue flowers," _dress's hems dancing on the summer breeze that rolled in from the ocean. The saltiness of it still on his tongue and nose. The same wind that stirred up the thing that had caught his eye; her starlight-silver hair that flourished about her shoulders and neck._ "-and she was wearing purple cork wedge heels." Mitsuki stared at his father in awe as he opened his eyes and he glanced at Midori. She blushed faintly and averted her eyes to her meal to continue eating as Mitsuki commented on his father's keen eye for detail, but Orochimaru smiled and remarked simply, "You'll understand when you're older, Mitsuki, that you don't forget a lady in a sundress."


	3. My Family Dinner

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 3 - My Family Dinner

After they had finished dinner, Mitsuki helped clear the table before asking his parents, "Can we watch a movie?" His father had rolled up his sleeves on his grey, long-sleeved shirt and his Mother had been putting the leftovers into a lunch box and some tupperware. So Mitsuki and his Father both had lunch, as everyone in the house knew Orochimaru rarely seemed to leave the house.

"Don't you have school tomorrow, Mikki?" Midori asked as she finished up and handed the empty pot off to the father of her child, who took it and looked back at his son while the pot filled with water, "I don't think you staying up late is such a good idea…"

"Well, could you stay the night, Mom?" Mitsuki asked and his mother hesitated, "If you're worried about clothes, Father kept all of your clothes and stuff in a room. There's not a bed in there, but he's been sleeping on the couch anyways."

"Hey." Orochimaru said sternly and warningly to his son, "That's not something you go around telling people, Mitsuki. We did not raise you to be tactless." From Mitsuki's half-ashamed expression it was evident that he noted his Father's disappointment. But Midori spoke up for her son,

"We raised him to be honest though, and he's… being honest. Thank you for the honesty, Mikki. I appreciate it." Midori said and Mitsuki smiled, "But your dad's right, sometimes you've got to remember where you are when you say stuff. All we ask, as your parents, is to stay on top of trying to better yourself in that department. Got it?" Mitsuki nodded,

"I'll work on my tact. Sorry, Father." Mitsuki voiced and his father nodded his acceptance of the apology, "Mom can stay, right?"

"I don't mind, but that's up to your mom to decide, not me." Orochimaru said simply as he started to scrub the dishes, "You'll understand when you grow older, Mitsuki." Midori looked from him to his son who looked up at her for her answer. She sighed and laughed a bit as she smiled,

"Alright, I'll stay-but only one movie and no Disney! None!" She said and Mitsuki ran out of the kitchen, going down the hallway and vanishing into the family room and left his parents alone again. "So, when did the couch become more enjoyable that your bed?" She asked casually and Orochimaru kept cleaning the dishes and stacking them in the drying rack,

"About 3 years ago when your son insisted that, since I'm the adult, I should stay up and wait for his mom to come home." Orochimaru said coldly and she sighed as she took the next wet dish he held over the rack, from his hand, and began to towel-dry it before putting it up in the cabinets. He stared at her a moment before turning off the water and wiping his hands on the towel she used, making Midori look at him inquisitively, before he looked into her eyes, "Were you too afraid to come back? Is that what it was?" He asked honestly and she looked at him, "Do you fear me?"

"Never in my life have I feared you, Orochimaru." She told him frankly and he smirked. That was definitely the woman he knew; but something was off. Something was different but it seemed to be solely between the two of them.

He reached up and brushed his fingers against the soft flesh of her cheek and wondered. Was she some type of genjutsu mean to torture him? Was she some sort of ghost? This the woman in front of him even real or another one of his lucid and vivid dreams of her finally coming home? He has spent endless nights since she left, just imagining her coming through that door as casual as she had when she left. Sometimes he thought of her bringing home groceries or just saying she had gotten lost on the way home and apologize for the delay.

She's greet him like she always did, then cook dinner and they'd all sit down like they once did, and then they'd tuck Mitsuki in as they always did- together. Fighting or not, they always tucked him in. He'd smooth things over like he always did, they'd have a passionate bout or two of make-up sex, and then he'd lay next to her and watch her sleep for a few minutes before falling asleep himself. Only, he'd wake up; on the couch, alone, too tormented by her memory to even fall asleep in the bed they once shared. Everytime he'd try to throw her things out, Mitsuki would cry and sob about how they had to keep them because she'd be sad if they were gone when she came back home. As if she was just gone a day instead of 3 years. Even now he was firmly against it.

"Look," Midori started and he was brought back to reality, his hand on her hip which she quickly brushed off, "I know that you don't want me here- but he's graduating in a few days. I thought I'd stick around long enough for the festival then leave." She said as she glanced at the living room and whispered the last part. Orochimaru used all of his will power to not reach out and hit the mother of his child,

"What the _fuck_ do you mean 'then leave'?" He demanded in a harsh whisper, "You can't just came and go as you please, Midori, it'll destroy him if you leave again. I can't fill in all the holes you left, ok? That's a 'Mom-only' sort of remedy." Orochimaru told her and she looked hurt, "You need to be in it all or not. Not just- Just- damn it, you're so-" He started before there was a soft sound coming from where she stood and he looked over and sighed.

She had a hand covering her mouth and part of her nose, her shoulders rising and lowering sporadically as several tears slipped down her cheeks. Orochimaru rubbed the back of his neck guiltily as she sniffled quietly, "I'm sorry." She managed before he pulled her closer to himself,

"Don't be sorry, Midori, I made you cry so-" He voiced as he tried to scramble how to smooth this over-

"Why is Mom crying?" Mitsuki asked firmly from the other side of the kitchen and his parents looked at him, "You made Mom cry, Father? Why? She just got home." Orochimaru pulled away from his son's mother and she wiped her eyes and cheeks, "Mom are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Mikki." Midori said despite her cracked voice and she took in a deep breath to collect herself and gave him a shaky smile, "Really." Her son was not convinced and looked ot his Father,

"Her make-up's all smeared and it made her eyes pretty. You ruined her pretty eye-makeup, Father. Because you made her cry. Now she's going to leave again." Mitsuki said and tears started to swell up in his eyes as Orochimaru said firmly,

"I did not make your mother cry, Mitsuki, she just… became so… ok, so maybe it wasn't her fault, but listen-" Orochimaru started before Midori spoke up,

"Mitsuki, stop that." She said firmly and he looked at her, "Men don't cry." Mitsuki wiped his eyes and opened his mouth to protest but she interjected, "No 'buts'." Midori went over to her son and knelt in front of him, taking his hands as he looked at her, "Your dad didn't meant it...it's just that-" She took a deep breath and looked at him, "Your Father and I have a lot of things to talk about, Mikki, and some of them are really hard on both of us." She explained slowly and he listened, "But I'm going to be staying tonight. And I'll still be here to cook you breakfast in the morning." She promised and he stared at her,

"Promise?" He asked and she smiled,

"Promise. And I promise I'll be here until your graduation, which I wouldn't miss for the world, and that festival afterwards." Midori said and Mitsuki cheered up as Orochimaru watched, "Did you pick out a movie?"

"Almost." Mitsuki said, "I've narrowed it down to 3 choices." He said and she took in a sharp breath,

"Ooh, tough call. Oh the other hand, you only have 3 to chose from instead of more. Do you want some help?" Midori asked and her son shook his head,

"I want it to be a surprise for you, but can you fix your make-up? You look scary." Mitsuki said and orochimaru snickered in the background as his mother stood up and went to the bathroom, Mitsuki following her in. His questions of her well-being reverberated into the Kitchen where his dad sighed and tied his hair back. Midori left the bathroom and their son went back to the living room, but she came back and grabbed another plate from the drying rack and began to towel-dry it. When she had finished drying it off, he was still trying to figure out what to say as he handed her the next plate to dry,

"It's like you never left." He said finally and she glanced at him, "You're gone for 3 years- and you come home and it all just comes back so natural and normal for you. I've tried to make it seem the same but it just- doesn't work out." She didn't say anything as Orochimaru talked, "It's not fair to him if you just come and go as you please. He won't understand, he's just a boy."

"And you do?" Midori asked him after a long moment and she set another dry dish in the cabinet.

"At first, I absolutely couldn't understand it; but I've had a lot of time to think things over and perhaps from your shoes." He said and she stood there, leaning back against the counter lip a bit with a towel in her hands, "I was...so many things when we only spent a few days at a time together, or a couple weeks. And then we had Mitsuki and I don't know what happened. I was so astonished and appalled and...encouraged that you stayed with me as long as you did, putting up with everything that I put you through, until you left." She stood there and listened quietly to him as he crossed his arms, "I have no idea what went wrong; I know what happened, I saw it, but I can't recognize the turning point." He looked at her, "I do know that you deserve your freedom, at the very least, but… I want you to come back and maybe we can work things out. However, I don't want to keep holding Mitsuki over your head on why you should come back home."

"...It's mutual, but it's _YOU_ who needs to work things out, Oro." She told him simply and he blinked, "You need to find what that problem is and fix it- because if I were to come back and you had that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde change again; I wouldn't come back again." Midori folded the towel as she spoke and looked at it while she did so, before setting the neatly folded towel on the counter, "I'm willing to give you the chance, but I just… I can't. Not right now. Not when you say things then act another way." He looked at her then looked away guiltily as she added on, "I put out 110% and you put out 20%. I want you to show me that you mean it; and you have to figure it out. Maybe that's too much to ask for since I've been gone trying to figure things out a while, to ask for something so concrete, but I have absolutely no desire to be with you the way you are now because all I see is the past." and she took a deep breath,

"I overlooked everything you did. I turned the other way every time you went to your lab and smiled when you came back, because we had so many more good times than bad but you very thoroughly made sure to wipe all of those out of the picture. I don't want ot have anything to do with you because of it. Yeah, I'm here for my son's graduation, but I'm not here for you." Midori looked up at the ceiling, "And it's so hard and so painful for me to even have this conversation with you. I never thought we'd be here- not once did it ever cross my mind that you would be such a… a bastard to me. To me. Of all people you could have pulled this shit on, you did it to me. Maybe you forgot how you felt about me when you put in the final blow, maybe you forgot that I was the one who gave birth to our son, I don't know but it just-" She covered her face with a hand as she forced back another sob, "It breaks my heart to think back on how you did all that- and you didn't even care. Not for a second. And now I'm standing here, an outsider in a place that I thought _was_ my home."

"And where do we begin?" He asked as she took a deep breath,

"Let's… see how things go until the festival and then I'll decide, alright?" Midori told him and Orochimaru sighed, "I'm sorry, did you expect it to go some other way? Like maybe we put Mitsuki to bed and start making out on the couch like teenagers?"

"No, I thought it would be more along the lines of you jumping into my arms and then we get to the throes of passion." He said honestly and Midori laughed while he smirked. That was progress at least, "I don't know where you're staying but how about after the movie and Mitsuki goes to bed, I help you bring your things here? Since you're staying here for a few days." She looked at him then looked away and put a hand to her head,

"Sure, but I...I can't remember where I'm staying." Midori voiced and Orochimaru frowned,

"Did you hurt yourself, perhaps, before you picked up Mitsuki from school?" He asked and she looked at him silently, "I only ask because your memory has never been foggy for even a moment." She stared at him,

"I… I don't know, Oro." Midori said simply, "I remember up until our fight- the night I left- and then…" She put a hand to her head, "I just knew how to get to Konoha and knew that Mitsuki would be at the Ninja Academy. The rest is just… blank." She explained absently with a smooth motion of her hand that indicated a slate being wiped clean. Orochimaru rubbed his chin,

"Hm. Tomorrow, while Mitsuki is at class, I'd like to run some tests if you don't mind." Orochimaru said before keeping a straight face as he jokingly added on, "I would like to be assured that the mother of my child hasn't been replaced with a pod person." As she started to blush angrily he held up a hand, "So wait- that whole conversation right now- was that everything you had on your mind that night?"

"Yes…" Midori answered, "But I had already left...I couldn't just waltz back in." Orochimaru looked away as he tried not to think about it and she voiced, "I didn't intend to be so troublesome. Perhaps you want something in return for helping?" Orochimaru shook his head,

"As much as I'd like to take advantage of that offer, I won't." He answered seriously as he met her eyes, "Consider this a good gesture towards our-" She raised an eyebrow, "-possibly renewed future." She smiled appreciatively, "I want you to fully understand, no matter how many times I say it, that I want to make this work. Besides, I want to know where you've been for 3 years too and why you just appeared here." She laughed and smiled,

"Well, if anyone can figure it out, it's you, Orochimaru." Midori said fondly and the smile slowly dwindled to a tired one, "Perhaps it's foolish of me, but I know you probably won't screw me over. Again. For the second time. Because there was a first."

"I fully understand what I did you needn't rub it in, you merciless woman." Orochimaru sighed as their son called for her from the other room about having decided on a movie, "I think that's your cue." His ex-lover then mockingly repeatedly what he said and the man narrowed his eyes, "I see your sense of humor wasn't wiped. How...charming."

She smiled but left the kitchen and him behind, "I'm coming, Mikki, hold on." After a few long moments to himself, Orochimaru made his way to the living room as well, whatever movie put into the dvd player as he stood in the threshold and leaned against the door frame.

On the couch to his left, against the wall on the far left side, his ex-lover had sat down and his son sat on the floor, leaning against the couch. As they used to when she was still around. It really seemed like nothing had changed. He smoothly slipped into his spot- the right side of the couch, wanting to reach over and pull Midori close. But he didn't. She needed to make her own decisions on her own time now and he'd patiently wait.

No matter how painful it was for him to do so.


	4. My Movie Night

a/n: A reviewer gave me a 'I see what you did there' about this story, which i greatly appreciate the review but I'd like to take a moment to point out that, while Orochimaru and Midori are not canon and Midori is purely a OC and fictional, that Orochimaru being Mitsuki's father is canon. Mitsuki says it himself during a mission with his team where Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki are to capture a Panda, and he says that he believes his father Orochimaur to be stronger than Sasuke and Naruto.

Thought my stories are sub-par in my own opinion, I try to do a lot of research before hand, to stay as accurate as possible, even if Orochimaru acts a bit OOC here.

* * *

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 4- My Movie Night

Mitsuki had chosen a horror movie and Orochimaru watched, amused at the ridiculousness of it, knowing that such things were so much more subtle and so much more traumatizing. His son hugged a pillow as did his mother, who jumped at a few jump start scenes, making the sannin laugh who pulled her over, scooting to the middle of the couch to do so, comforting her in between the carnage and horror scenes as she slowly calmed down. However, when she did, something else would happen and she'd jump or cringe and grip his arm, making him smile.

They had been through worse situations and she had never batted an eye or faltered in her stubbornness, but the things popping up seemed to be getting to her. Eventually, he kept his arm wrapped about her shoulders as they watched the movie, and when it was over their son jumped up with another one in hand, "This one next, Mom!"

"No, baby, it's a school night." She said firmly and he looked at her, crestfallen. "I said one movie. You have class tomorrow." Orochimaru stayed quiet and still, watching it all happen and kept his input to himself but glanced at the clock. 8 pm. Mitsuki could have another and fall asleep quickly but he wanted to see his son stand firm.

"But I didn't want to go to sleep." Mitsuki protested and tried again, "I already picked it out, and it's just one more movie. Please Mom?" Midori glanced at his father for some form of help but Orochimaru quickly averted meeting eyes with her. She looked away and Orochimaru looked back to see her thinking about it,

After a few long minutes she admitted defeat. "Fine, One. But tomorrow you better wake up on time and not be late for school, Mikki." Mitsuki beamed happily and switched the movies while his father pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and laid it across their laps. "Thank you, Oro."

"Mm-hmm." He said simply before adding, "Should I make some popcorn for us?" Orochimaru and as Midori opened her mouth to decline, Mitsuki jumped up and proclaimed that he'd go and make it before running off to the kitchen. Orochimaru pulled his arm away and laid back against the plush couch as Midori looked at him questioningly, making him smirk, "OH, you scold me about not wanting to be with me but NOW, now you want to cuddle, hm?" He teased and she blushed, looking away as the movie's previews came onto the screen and the male chuckled, wrapping his arm about her shoulders again and pulling her over to lean against him once more, "Come here, coy woman of mine." She blushed darker but didn't object as she laid against him, "Are you covered up enough?"

"...I'm fine." Midori murmured and the Sannin smirked, "I remembered something...about before." Orochimaru's eyebrows rose in surprise,

"You did? What?" He questioned and she looked up at him,

"Um, I think...I'm staying at an Inn. Out in Konoha." She told him and Orochimaru smiled, glad she had been trying to think about it as he suggested. Another progressive start. "And fog."

"Fog?" He questioned and Midori nodded,

"From, uh- from the night I left. You asked me to try to remember." Midori explained and he listened, "I remembered...leaving the house with a bag, you know. And I walked out of the limits of the base and then this...fog started to roll in." Midori explained, "I...didn't know where it was coming from but I kept walking. We had been together for so long, I never bothered to think that after the fight, you wouldn't be around to help me because you always were." Orochimaru felt a pang of guilt as he listened before she squinted her eyes, "I kept walking and then… I remember seeing the street ground up close, like I fell or something; then that's it." He gently pressed her head into his shoulder and kissed her head, "I can't seem to remember anything else."

"It will come in time, Midori." Orochimaru assured her, "You've done a great job so far, but don't expend yourself on it. I'll run some tests tomorrow and we'll work from there." Mitsuki walked in with the large bowl of microwaved popcorn as Orochimaru added on, "I may not have been there too much before, but I promise you I'm here now." He glanced over and saw his son, feeling a bit awkward for saying something so intimate to the mother of his child with said child in the room. But Mitsuki smiled happily and excitedly, as if his father's words had broke whatever 'evil-curse' was on his mother and had brought her back to them. For good.

"I know, Oro." She replied with a soft smile as the movie started and Mitsuki sat down on the floor between them, back against the couch. However, by the end of this movie, Orochimaru was laying on the couch and had drifted off a bit himself. He awoke, however, to a sweet scenic view of his small family.

Mitsuki had fallen fast asleep on the floor, head under where his Father lay on the couch. His Mother laid against Orochimaru with her head on his shoulder and his arm loosely wrapped about her waist, the blanket covering them both from the slight chill of the house. Her breathing soft and shallow as she slept deeply against him and he leaned over and kissed her head.

' _I never bothered to think that after the fight, you wouldn't be around to help me.'_

Orochimaru sighed and ran his free hand through his long black bangs. That was the truth; No matter if they were on bad terms or not, if she was ever in trouble, Orochimaru never faltered to keep her safe. The only exception was when she left. It was painful to know that something had happened to her the one time she probably needed him the most- and his ego had been too hurt to go and help her. He covered his face with a hand and tried to recall anything out of the ordinary that night aside from them, when his son's voice interrupted his thoughts,

"Is she going to stay, Father?" Orochimaru lowered his hand below his eyes and looked up at his son, who stood over him now, before he looked at Midori, pulling the blanket up with his free hand to cover her shoulders.

"We'll see, Mitsuki, but your Mother and I have a lot of problems we need to work out." Orochimaru explained and looked at his child who looked back inquisitively.

"But… you'll fix it, right?" Mitsuki asked, "What needs to be worked out? Mom's home now, right?"

"It's a start." His Father said slowly as he tried to piece together a way to explain it all to his probing son. So painfully like his father in his search for knowledge. "Your mom and I got in a really big fight the night she left; because I hurt her in a way that you're not supposed to hurt a woman. But I did. And I need to make it up to your mom, but she's a bit scared right now."

"Because of the horror movie?" Mitsuki asked and Orochimaru frowned,

"In a sense. She doesn't want to get hurt again by me." His father explained and slowly parted from the mother of his child, slipping out from under her to stand at his own height,

"Are you going to hurt her again?" Mitsuki asked seriously, glaring at him and Orochimaru frowned,

"No, Mitsuki. I plan not to." Orochimaru picked up Midori in his arms and she stirred a bit but continued sleeping, "But situations like these are very, very delicate. I need to be careful." He carried her up the stairs and his son followed, listening and thinking, "It will take some time, Mitsuki, but it will be better for all of us once it's all figured out." Mitsuki smiled,

"I'm really happy that she's back, Dad." Mitsuki said behind him and Orochimaru chuckled as he walked up the last couple stairs,

"Me too, Mitsuki." Orochimaru said and his son's mother slowly woke up in his arms, "Well, well, look who's joining us, Mitsuki." Midori looked at Orochimaru then their son,

"What are you doing up, Mikki?" She asked him sleepily and he looked at her,

"Making sure you're ok, Mom." Mitsuki replied confidently and his father chuckled a bit, setting the woman on her feet and gently taking the blanket from her, "Can you tuck me in?"

"Of course, honey." She smiled, walking with him to his room as Orochimaru calmly folded up the blanket. He stood in the hallway and watched as she quietly closed the door, walking back over to him and he stood there patiently for her. "Did I...fall asleep on you?"

"Indeed you did." He confirmed and she looked away, but he slipped his fingers under her chin and turned her to look back at him, "Don't feel bad for how you treated me and how you're acting now. The past is in the past, Midori, water under the bridge." she stared up at him and smiled as he added, "Now then, since you're up, I know you're tired but I'd like to get your things from that Inn soon."

"Alright, but can I shower first?" She asked as he opened the doors to their room, smirking,

"No. I'm going to examine you first, then you may shower." Orochimaru said and she glared hotly at him, "Oh dear, not like that. All in a scientific and professional way first; however, I am not opposed to playing 'doctor and nurse'." He said with a smirk as she sat down on the king-sized bed, laid with pressed dark plum sheets. She looked about the room. The bed's back was against the left wall, and against the right wall was their shared walk-in closet. The wall across from the one with the doors in it held two finely-crafted french doors that opened to a grand and luxurious master suite bathroom, complete with a deep soaking tub and a huge walk-in-shower with several shower heads.

"I remember that this house was a complete wreck when you showed it to me." She said with a laugh and Orochimaru smirked, remembering that time as well.

 _Midori was pregnant with their son and Orochimaru had listened to her demands that they needed a stable and permanent home; that she wouldn't be constantly moving their son around just because Orochimaru liked changes in scenery. "I need to constantly check on my bases-" He had tried to protest but she slammed her fist down on his desk, 3 months pregnant and already showing,_

" _Then get one close to one of your bases, and you move everything there!" Midori snapped angrily from the flickering hormones but Orochimaru looked up at her, "I'm pregnant, damn it, I can't keep moving from place to place with you. As romantic as it is, it's hard enough standing up from a chair, much less packing and re-packing. I don't want our kid to constantly change schools and have to keep making and remaking friends, they'll have trouble adjusting." Orochimaru helped her into a chair near his desk, calm and collected against her rage of crazy, and she accepted his help,_

" _Alright, Midori, I'll look for something more...normal." He complied. And he did. And he found a lone house between his base and a good distance from Konoha- however, despite it's huge properties and scandalously low price tag, it was going to take a lot of reconstruction and renovation to make it how they wanted it._

 _A two-story, home that once had many bathrooms and bedrooms, but poor conditions and many storms had demolished the roof and let water leak into the rooms, destroying the floors and the walls. The realtor had tried to upsell the wrap around porch- which needed severe help- especially after Midori fell through it. But it had been so big for the two of them that it felt like a mansion, however with their plans of perhaps another child or two in the near future, they needed the space._

"I was so surprised that you actually did all of this yourself." Midori said and he smirked as he set the blanket down on the bed next to her and opened the doors to the bathroom, revealing a double-vanity, and knelt down to rummage in the cabinets. "I just kept thinking, 'wow, he could have done this all for me' and it made me so happy."

"Well, it was intended for you, but mostly us- and I remember quite the fun nights we had in both the tub and the shower." Orochimaru answered as he pulled out several empty vials and long cotton swabs, Midori blushing as he walked over with them. "Your son only let me throw out anything that was expired." He set them on the bed next to her as she smiled and looked up at him, "I will be meticulous, however I will try to be quick about it." Orochimaru said before tilting her head up a bit, checking around her neck first; trailing his fingers along her nape to try and see if there were any covered up markings.

"I had to give him something to balance out your patience." She said with a soft smile and he said nothing.

It was painful. Too much so, to think of how he had wronged her so badly when she had been so loyal and so good to him. Even now as he was checking between her delicate does and her elegant fingers for elusive pinpricks, all he wanted to do was pull her close and tell her how he'd turn the world upside-down to make it up to her and would get on his knees for her forgiveness. He wanted her in his arms again and at the same time he wanted to hurt her the way she had hurt him.

He wanted all of her. She was home and half of him told him it was for good- and the other half told him it was only until he tripped up again and the next time would be longer. That latter half told him that she had been hurt because he was too prideful to chase after her and apologize and added on she had vanished for 3 years from him not being there for her. It foretold that this time, the next time he saw her would be at her own funeral. Orochimaru's hands shook a bit and he pulled them away from her, putting one to his head to try and quiet out the darker and stronger of the two voices as it flashed images of her in a coffin in his mind's eye. It was too much, even for him.

Her soft hand grazed his cheek and he opened his eyes behind his hand, "Oro? What's wrong?" She asked as he sat before her, having gotten on his knees to check her lower half while she sat on the bed and silently let him do his work. He put his forehead on her knees and took deep breaths to try and relieve the tightness of his chest.

Mitsuki meant the world to him; he was their son, he was Orochimaru's everything. But he needed Midori more. She had been the missing part of his dark and twisted soul that completed him- he knew it was so when they first met, no- when he first saw her. Even when she was in labor, he was more concerned for her well-being and safety than his newborn son. Never was he more vulnerable to anyone, never was he the most docile man to anyone, never the most forgiving to anyone than he was to her. He had love her so deeply, so much more than he even knew he could feel for anyone or thing- to that day, he loved her.

"I'm here." She told him softly and he listened, gently resting his hands on her lower legs, "That's a start, isn't it?" It was if as she knew what he wanted to say before he even had the words.

It had been this way; this short-term prediction habit she had. He expected her, in the beginning, to abuse this unspoken ability to know what he wanted and thought she would harm him and deny him at every turn. But she never did and she only seemed to use it for the better. When he was at his weakest, she came in like a tide of new strength and helped him up.

"I hate this." Orochimaru muttered and she gently stroked his hair, "I can't live through this."

"You need to focus, Oro." He told him as if overriding what he had said, "We can focus on us and all of this...we'll talk about it tomorrow, but I need you to finish what you started. If there's something wrong here with me, I need you to find it, and I need you to help me because I don't know what to do. I want to be here with Mitsuki...and you." She said and he looked up at her sheepishly, "But I can't remember anything, so there's that possibility that something bad happened to me and I...I don't want there to come a time where I'll actually hurt you two."

Orochimaru scoffed, resting his cheek on her knee as the tightness in his chest alleviated, "It seems you are under the impression that Mitsuki and I cannot defend ourselves from the likes of you? His sweet and non-confrontation mother? When was the last time you actually went out of your way to fight?" Midori's cheeks flushed red with anger as Orochimaru stood up and tilted her head back, "I can't recall you ever fighting your way out of even a wet paper bag."

"Fuck you, Old Man, I can fight." She hissed venomously and he gasped in mock shock, clutching his head,

"OH, I'm suddenly overcome by a heart attack, being so old- sorry, dying, can't help you, Midori." Orochimaru said as he played along and she started laughing, playfully hitting him in the arm and he added on, "Brittle bones are breaking."

"Quit it!" She laughed as he laughed a bit too, "You're such a drama king." Orochimaru smiled and chuckled a bit as he tilted her head to the side to check behind her ears for anything. Behind her left ear and tucked just out of view, was a small and tight circle of 5 puncture marks the size of needles. Still a bit red from around the holes, meaning they were fresh. and a strange greenish blue fluid seemed to remain around the area. Orochimaru diligently swabbed up the fluid and put it in the vial.

He couldn't think of a time before that point when a smile had faded faster from his face in Midori's presence.


	5. My Questions

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 5 - My Questions

"Mitsuki, come on." The boy hustled down the stairs, smiling. His Mother stood in the kitchen, wearing a frilly apron as she leaned over his Father's shoulder and moved some pancakes onto his plate with a spatula, from the pan in her other hand. His Father folded up his newspaper and started to cut up the meal when she pulled away as Mitsuki leaned across the opposite end of the table to grab a slice of toast, "Oh no you don't." His mother said firmly as she set the pan down and pointed ot his chair across from his father, "Park it, Mikki, and eat properly."

"But I'll be late." Mitsuki said a bit sadly as he pulled out his chair and Orochimaru sipped his coffee, flickering his eyes to the woman at the corner of the kitchen table, who set a bottle of syrup down for him,

"You should have woken up earlier then, Mikki." She said sternly yet gently, pulling out her own chair, "Made your favorite, so eat up." Mitsuki gasped and cut into his hot pancakes, little bits of melted chocolate within them,

"Chocolate chips." He whispered before helping himself as his parents ate quietly, taking their time because neither of them was doing anything majorly important that day. "This is so good." Mitsuki moaned and his mother laughed as he continued to stuff his face with the pancakes.

"Slow down, Mikki, chew and swallow." His Mother smiled and looked at Orochimaru, "What do you think of the pancakes?" He responded by cutting up another piece of his own portion, now a fourth of a pancake, which had also been his sixth pancake of that morning so he was beginning to grow full.

"They leave a similar impression." His Father said shortly as Mitsuki finished,

"You're still going to pick me up today, right?" Mitsuki asked and his Mother smiled sweetly at him,

"Mhm. And we're going to spend hours dressing you up, so be prepared." She answered as she stood up, "Come on, I'll walk you out." Mitsuki got up and waved at his father who waved back from the table, sipping his coffee but his mind was elsewhere.

The night before after checking her over, he found those strange marks on her left ear- and another perfectly matching set behind her right ear- and at the base of her skull, hidden in her hair line. All identical. It shook him much more than he cared to admit.

In the years they had been together, not once did he ever perform experiments on her. A bit of bdsm, yes- but never did he put a scalpel to her skin. She was perfect and she didn't need fixing. Even when their son was born, he brought her to a proper hospital to birth him. It sickened him and disgusted him that someone would go out and hurt someone who he cared so deeply for. "Oro?" She asked and he looked up as she returned from walking their son, "Hey, you alright over there?"

"Mhm." He vocalized, lifting his mug up again, "A bit too full." He lied as he took a sip of coffee and looked at his newspaper, trying to dispel his thoughts but offered his free hand to her. She placed her hand in it and he led her over to sit on the table as he set his mug down and pushed his plate away. "Actually, no, that's a lie. I was thinking about when I looked you over last night." She listened to him as he added on, "You have a set of strange puncture marks- 3 of them- and they look like they may have been quite painful when you got them, but they seem to be mostly healed-"

"And it bothers you that someone did this?" She finished for him and he nodded, "I think we talked about this being a possibility of happening before Mitsuki was born." Orochimaru sighed with irritation and tilted his head away from her,

"We did, but you barely left my sight. Now you're out in the open, susceptible to everything and it's… it's disgusting and sick." He said and she laughed a bit, "Why are you laughing?"

"We're broken up and now you're worried about me being victim to everything and anything. You never worried before." She said with a teasing smile, "You're not so squeaky-clean yourself, Oro."

"That's not the point here, Midori, the point is that something happened to you 3 years ago the moment I stopped looking out for you." Orochimaru countered quickly, "If I-" She leaned down and kissed him, shutting him up,

"You overthink the smallest things." She told him when she pulled away before she slipped down from the table to her feet and scooped up the empty dishes, "Think about the good, not the bad. Now help me with these dishes." Orochimaru sat there a moment before he got to his feet and grabbed his own dishes.

* * *

"Mitsuki." His mother called as she opened up the door to his classroom, finding Mitsuki and his Teacher in the room, "What is this now?" She asked as she walked over to him and he smiled up at her,

"I'm just finishing up my work." He said and signed his name on the papers, before getting up and moving past his mother to drop them off to his teacher. He went back over to her as she smiled, "Can I ask you some stuff?" He inquired as they walked out of the room and she nodded, "Dad said at dinner that you guys first saw each other- but I was thinking about it and it doesn't seem that it was the same time you met." Mitsuki said and she laughed a bit,

"How observant of you, but you're right. We saw each other that day, but we met a few years later." his Mother explained simply as they walked ot the kimono shop, but Mitsuki pressed.

"When? Where? How? I want to know!" His quizzed and her smile faltered a bit under his abrupt questions, "Did you guys have that 'fall-in-love-at-first-sight' type of love, or did you have to work up?"

"I, uh, I-I don't understand why you want to know all this, Mikki." His Mother said as they entered the shop, "Come on, let's focus on your kimono-"

"Was Father cool back then? He sounded cool when you two talked about it last night." Mitsuki said as the shopkeeper smiled at the two, his Mother nodding her acknowledgement to the man who stared at her as she walked by. "If he can be cool, then maybe I will be when I grow up!" His Mother laughed,

"Oh, I see, so you want to know how your Dad and I got together because you want to know the secret to getting a woman, hm?" His Mother smirked as Mitsuki looked away guiltily, "You know, I didn't like your Father at first. From a distance, he was very handsome and attractive, but up-close he was a bit...much." Mitsuki walked up to a rack of the fabrics, looking through them,

"Well- you're prettier than all of my classmates' mom's and Dad's...Well...He is too, I guess." Mitsuki said as he began having trouble finding words, "But I...find it odd that you and dad had me when it seems I should have brothers and sisters- older ones." His Mother frowned,

"So- you want to know why you don't have siblings?" She asked slowly and he nodded, "Well...do you know about pregnancy?" She asked and he nodded again, "Do you know...about miscarriages?" Mitsuki slowly nodded as she moved out of the way of the shopkeeper's view and briskly browsed through the kimono fabrics as well, though she paid little attention to them,

"Before you, Mikki, I was pregnant with a little girl, not too long after your Dad and I got together. But I lost her- I miscarried." Midori explained and his son listened and looked at her sadly, "Your Dad and I...we got through it, and I got pregnant again. Only, that time, when I went to the hospital to have her, there were...complications." She said as she picked out a kimono fabric and held it up against her son,

"What happened?" Mitsuki asked quietly and his mother folded the fabric over her arm,

"Well, the doctors told your dad that they could only save one of us; me or the baby. But they needed him to decide." His Mother looked at Mitsuki, "And your Dad chose me. Not too long after that- I got pregnant with you. And here you are."

"Will Father tell me the same thing?" Mitsuki asked and his mother roller her eyes,

"No, your Dad being your Dad will go- 'Saved your Mom. The End.'" His Mother said and Mitsuki smirked, "Bet you $5 he won't." Mitsuki quipped and his mother smirked, "You're on, Kid. Come on, let's get you something you'll pull off."

"Can I pick out your kimono for the festival, Mom?" Mitsuki asked excitedly and she smiled,

"Mhm, but don't pick out something with black and red." His Mother said as she plucked out a few more fabrics for her son, who looked at her curiously, the topic of her miscarriages long forgotten.

"Why not?" Mitsuki asked and his mother smirked,

"It reminds your Dad of a time he doesn't like to recall." His Mother said and left it at that, because she knew better. Their son wouldn't understand that time. He wouldn't comprehend why his mother or his father did the things they did- he was too young. He would only be able to comprehend that, when they first met, it wasn't for love and they weren't pulling each other into their respective arms. They had been on the opposing sides, the wrong teams, yet they had been on the same team for a whole year and a half until his Father let his pride, once more, get in the way.

"Will you tell me about it if Dad says you can?" Mitsuki asked and his Mother reluctantly nodded before her son turned his attention away, "Ok- I like this one for you Mom and this one will match your hair." He said and his mother gently took them off their racks, placing them over her arm as the shopkeeper came around,

"I can, um, hold those for you, Miss." The man said nervously and she paid no mind to it as she vocalized her appreciation of his offer and handed over the fabrics- but Mitsuki did. And he knew the looks the man was giving her too. Mitsuki glared at the shopkeep, who glanced over as his Mother turned away to pick up another fabric- and he flinched. "Ah, I'll, uh, just go hold them for, um, you two. Until you're ready." He stammered before making a quick exit as Mitsuki scoffed and his Mother watched the man leave, confused by his behavior.

Mitsuki was determined to have his family again. That meant him, His Dad and His Mom. No one else. And he wouldn't let someone get in the way of it.

Eventually, they managed to pick something and walked home, Orochimaru meeting them where he usually walked his son to in the morning. "OH, look at you, coming out for once!" His Mother said happily and Orochimaru smirked, wrapped up in a dark blue scarf, black pants and a long-sleeved shirt to hold off the chill of the autumn,

"Want to make sure you two made it home. Honestly, had you not been here a minute later, I would have to go and find you two." Orochimaru answered and ruffled his son's hair, "Bring me anything?" His Mother was quick to reply with a 'no' and Mitsuki took the bag and ran to the house, hoping the quick exit would give them time to talk. And It did. "And you? How are you feeling?" He asked Midori who looked at him and gave him a tired smile, "Something bothering you?"

"Mitsuki was asking about you and why he's an only child...and how we met." Midori answered and Orochimaru's eyes darkened and he adjusted his scarf and averted his gaze. "I told him about my miscarriage, how you chose me over the second baby, and that you were a bit...overwhelming, when we first met."

"So you're going to leave out the part where I stole you away from another man in a 'horrid fashion', so that I can fill in the gaps?" He questioned and she smiled wryly, "He won't understand."

"I know Oro, but when he asked why you dont like me wearing red and black at the kimono shop, I told him it was because it reminded you of a part of your life you weren't too proud of. Give me some credit." She told him and he relaxed, "Did you figure out what was going on with that stuff you found behind my ears?"

"Hm? OH, right." ORochimaru said, snapping back to reality from wherever he was, "It's a preservative. The strangest I've ever seen by the likes of it, but a preservative none the less."

"A preservative?" She echoed, "As in...I was in a jar somewhere?"

"In a way. The liquid if found contains vitamins, proteins, and electrolytes that would suggest some sort of induced-sleep whereas the liquid kept you alive and nourished during it. However, it also had chakra in it; some of which was yours and some of which was not. " Orochimaru explained as they walked back to the house, "There was also a complex chemical strand that I haven't been able to completely figure out, but it seems to have been the reason you haven't aged a day since you left." Midori put a hand to her head,

"Ok, so- I bot bit or stabbed by something that left this, um- preserving- fluid in me, and put me into some type of coma where I didn't age?" She asked and he nodded, "Does that make any sense? At All? It sounds so...so...fake. So obtuse."

"It would explain a lot. When I did all your blood work today and ran my tests, aside from a bit dehydrated you were completely healthy and nothing's changed in your anatomy." Orochimaru explained, opening the door to the house for her and holding it open as she passed the threshold, before shutting it behind her, "But you were injected with this- we'll call it a fluid- and its still in your system but it's not doing you any harm. It would explain why you can't remember anything farther than that night, especially if you were knocked out, injected with the fluid, and then put into a type of coma."

"But who has that type of knowledge to make something like that?" She questioned and he frowned, leaning back against the counter as he crossed his arms,

"The chakra was embedded in the fluid at an atomic level- so this stuff high have been an energy fluid of some sort and just injected into you so it would work faster, especially injected where it was. It would access your system and blood much faster than it would through your skin and pores." He explained and she frowned, "I will try to look into it more, but unless I have someone to compare it too, I have no idea as to where the other chakra came from." Midori frowned as he told her this, "In other news, I'm in no mood to cook tonight, so I ordered a pizza for us."

"For us-" she asked, gesturing to herself and himself with a finger, "Or for US." She asked, making a circular gesture with the same finger as their some came in and he scoffed,

"All _three_ of us, give me some credit, it's been three years-"

"Of bad buffalo wings and pizza dinners. Every night." Mitsuki said and his Father flicked his eyes sharply at his son, "He tries though." His Mother laughed as their son threw his father under the bus and his Father turned his venomous glare at her to silence her. But what silenced them next was what came out of their son's mouth, "Father, did you and Mom fall in love at first sight or did you have to work up to it? Mom wouldn't tell me."

"Hm…" Orochimaru responded and tried to think of a way to put it, before looking up at the ceiling, "It's a bit complicated, but- I suppose it was a little of both." Mitsuki looked confused as Orochimaru smirked at his son's Mother, "You know, your mom can tell you how we first met." Midori glared at him and mouthed 'you bastard' as he tossed the responsibility of telling how they really did met for the first time, to Mitsuki, who was giddy to hear it. And so, without another moment, she turned halfway to their son and smirked as the sunset outside the kitchen window.

The last few rays of multi-colored dusk illuminated her eyes with an orangish-red color and she told Mitsuki, "Well, Mikki, to make it easier for you to understand, I guess I'll have to tell you about two very secret things; The Akatsuki and a man named 'Itachi Uchiha'."


	6. My Mom's Ex-Boyfriend

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 6- My Mom's Ex-Boyfriend

"I don't understand how she could have escaped, she was asleep." The Master of the building said angrily to his commander, who bowed, "Where is she? Why didn't the cameras pick her up?"

"They did, my Lord." his servant murmured, "But it seems she found some way to the room where the transportation device is and managed to escape back to Konoha. The device returned, however."

"Destroy it." He ordered and his servant twitched, "And go find her and you bring her back." They hissed as they closed their eyes and put an exhausted hand over them, teetering a bit. When his servants attempted to help him he snarled at them, "She needs to return!"

"Yes, I understand." His main servant murmured, "We will go and retrieve her." Their Master held up a hand,

"Do so...quietly…" Their Master said as he turned and walked off, taking his time to catch his composure again as his main servant spoke up,

"And if she objects?" The servant asked and their Master glared back at her,

"Level the entire Village. She'll be more cooperative then." He said darkly and continued to walk off, "And when she comes back, make sure you give her a bit extra of the elixir, this time. Don't need her remembering anything...unimportant." They called back dismissively and trusted the task to their servants who, they knew, wouldn't fail them. Not a second time, anyways, and his servants began watching the recording again of the sleeping chamber.

In the video beside their master, wrapped in his own container where he slept, another container laid- and a hand pushed up the lid of it, greenish-blue fluid splashing onto the ground as a woman pulled herself from the container. She clawed her way from the holder completely and fell to the ground; but the obvious pain didn't deter her from getting to her shaking feet and stumbling forward until she remembered how to walk- long silver hair draped around her for her lack of clothes. Three tubes had been connected to her at three specific points in her head and she reached up to the ones behind her ear and ripped them out or tried to.

Instead, the force of it ripped them out from the machine they were attached to, which gave them a lifeless slacking and she pulled them off her skin before tossing them into the container carelessly as she attacked the other one on the back of her head to procure the same result. "How did she do it?" The Servant murmured in awe and horror, as she freed herself before walking away and out of the recorded room.

She appeared down another corridor in another monitor, a recording as well, wrapped in what appeared to be a curtain, as she made her way towards the end of the hall- hiding behind a column from the servants, before running down the hallway urgently. "How did she even wake up? We sedated her so heavily."

As she turned another corner in the hall, she glanced towards the camera which zoomed in on her for a clear identification; and illuminated her clear eyes.

* * *

Midori paused a moment in her daily chores, which was vacuuming right now, and rubbed her neck as Orochimaru came into the room from another entry way into the living room. "Are you alright?" He repeated the phrase he had been wearing out since she had unexpectedly came home.

"Yeah, but my neck burns a little." She admitted quietly, letting her hair cover the area she had been rubbing as he set the box in his arms down on the table while she turned off the vacuum and looked around the room with a sigh. "You guys didn't do anything, huh? No dusting, no vacuuming, nothing."

"It was an 'as needed' chore to do." Orochimaru replied calmly and walked over to her, "Let me see your neck." He said firmly and she obliged by pulling her hair around over her right shoulder. The markings were gone as Orochimaru brushed his fingers against her skin; from behind her ears and the base of her neck. "Hm." He mused quietly as she glanced back at him, "Did you see a doctor?" He questioned as she let her hair go,

"Just you. I haven't gone anywhere, really." She admitted and sighed in discomfort as she rubbed her neck again, "Did you throw out that aloe vera I kept in the fridge?"

"Of course I did, or it would have been in there for 3 years." Orochimaru said simply, "However, I keep a bottle in there." She nodded, "You know, I don't believe you've ever told me that you had a kekkei genkai." Midori looked at him as she walked away to put the vacuum away,

"You know...I could have sworn I had told you about it before, but you just kind of- waved it off as unimportant." She said, putting a hand to her head, "I never realized how painful it was to try and recall things. The more I try to remember, the more my head hurts and the blurrier it gets."

"You don't need to remember everything, my dear." Orochimaru answered to hopefully deter her from delving further into her memories. Into their shared past. "It won't be good for you." She looked at him a bit confused as he watched her walk around. Despite how she was still seemed to be in good physical health, she rarely ate aside from dinner and it was even rarer for her to drink anything aside from the dinner table as well. The fluid had probably run it's course through her veins by now and if she didn't gain an appetite, her body would begin to suffer naturally. "Are you hungry at all?"

"No, I'm alright." she replied calmly, sitting herself down in a chair, "If you don't want me to remember everything, then what should I remember?"

"That I care very deeply for you and your well-being, and that I have always sought out what was best for you. When Mitsuki was born, I began loving him and looking out for him as well." He voiced as he went to the kitchen and got her a glass of water, going back to her and sitting down next to her, handing her the glass which she took. She drank most of it and he watched, a bit relieved to see her consuming something, and she stopped before getting up from the couch,

"I've been trying to recall why we're not married." She said bluntly and he sat forward but didn't get up, "I mean- you say you care about me, but I think that's your way of saying you love me. And we have Mitsuki, who we both love a lot- I can't help but feeling like a mistress of yours when I can't remember why we're not married."

"We're common-law married, dear." Orochimaru pointed out and she looked at him curiously, "We've lived together over a certain span of years, where we're just the same as a married couple in the eyes of the law." She narrowed her eyes at him with obvious dislike for the explanation before he added on, "We have differences in the whole 'marriage' concept and you kept putting it off everytime I tried to talk to you about it."

"Like what type of differences?" She asked and he closed his eyes,

"You want a wedding with guests,'friends' and 'family', but the only people I have are you and Mitsuki." Orochimaru said simply, "However, I want something simple with just the three of us and a priest." She blinked, "And since my last name isn't listed anywhere, I'd have to take yours which I'm not too keen on 'Mr. Orochimaru Noir'."

"I...but my last name is cool." She said with the same simplicity he had shown and he chuckled,

"For you, yes; for me? Not so much." Orochimaru said before looking at her, "Though, with the time I've had to think, I do believe it's time we settled the matter." Midori met his eyes before he added on reluctantly, "I've been foolish, Midori, among so many other things but I've always been ready to take you as my wife- but you want to start over and you want to work up again, which I understand and respect."

Midori blushed and looked at the glass of water, "What if...I don't agree?" She asked slowly and nervously, "How long would you wait for me to remember how we used to be?"

"I've waited 3 years already, Midori, I don't mind waiting a little more." The Sannin answered honestly as he sat up straight, "Focus on recovering and taking your time to readjust, and when you're ready, we'll talk about everything piece by piece; but allow me to warn you before hand, dear-" He said and smirked up at her, "Though I can be very tolerant and patient that does not mean I will sit by and have some other man snatch you up while you're trying to figure out where _**WE**_ go next." Midori looked confused and embarrassed as if he meant that she'd just run into another man's arms with her family idly sitting by.

"What type of memory do I have- that would make you care more about self-preservation than my health?" Midori asked bluntly as she looked away before she added, "I need some air." As she set the glass in the sink and left him sitting there to listen to the front door close as she left the house. He closed his eyes, maimed by her words but he deserved it.

He sighed into his hands while he tried to figure out what the secret was to why they had worked so well for so long; and why it was so hard to move forward with this blank slate they now had between them?

He pushed the thoughts out of his mind and pushed them down until he couldn't even remember them. And continued on with his day as normal, his family returning and dinner made. Several times he had almost gotten too comfortable and slipped a hand about her waist and pulled her close like he once hand- but he quickly restrained himself and continued on. It was as if he wasn't there but he was, the whole time, like an out-of-body experience. It was painful. So damn painful.

"Whose Itachi Uchiha, Father?" Mitsuki asked after dinner in his room, as Orochimaru helped him with some of his homework while the boy's mother was tending to the laundry. Orochimaru looked at him as he continued, "What did he look like?" Orochimaru thought about it,

"He had long black hair that went to his elbows and black eyes." His father voiced, "The Uchiha, collectively, all shared similar traits; dark hair and dark eyes, with the exception being their sharingan- which turns their eyes red." Mitsuki listened intently, "But, their clan is gone save Sasuke Uchiha and your classmate- Sarada, I believe?"

"Why did mom bring up Itachi then?" Mitsuki quizzed and Orochimaru tapped the paper between them with a pencil, "Later." Mitsuki said quickly as his father scoffed and poked him in the forehead with the mechanical pencil in his hand, "Hey!"

"No 'later', Mitsuki, homework comes first." His Father said firmly, "Do this problem and we'll talk." Mitsuki look a bit irritated, but he pulled the piece of paper towards him and looked the mathematical problem over before working on it as his father watched him work diligently. He resembled his mother so much sometimes, and in the right angle, his hair seemed to shimmer the same silver that her own did. His son slid the paper over to him and looked at him earnestly, as if he had earned himself the answers he so wanted and his father smirked.

His mother's hair. And his father's thirst for knowledge. However would a boy like Mitsuki grow up to be? What type of man would he become? These thoughts ran through the sannin's head as he checked his son's work.

Would Mitsuki take after his mother in all of her forgiveness and sweet tolerance? Or would Mitsuki take after his father in all of his patience and vile cunning?

"When we met, your mother was...dating Itachi Uchiha." Orochimaru answered as he slid the paper back towards his son, doubting if 'dating' was the proper word. Because whatever they had transcended words and was something completely untouchable.

"What happened?" Mitsuki asked and his Father tilted his head to the side as he rested it on his laced fingers, elbows on the desk in his son's room,

"He died." Orochimaru answered simply and his son looked hurt and lowered his head, "Why Mitsuki, what's the matter?"

"I'm just… thinking how hard it must have been on mom. For her boyfriend to die." Mitsuki said quietly and Orochimaru blinked. Not at his son's words, which were much to his personality. But to the fact that even Orochimaru hadn't been that considerate of the woman he loved after the Uchiha had passed. "She must have been really, really sad." Mitsuki looked at his father, "Mom said that you guys tried for a baby before me, and one of them almost killed her." His father listened silently as his son questioned, "When you were about to lose mom, didn't that make you sad?"

As Orochimaru stared at the wall and tried to recall words to place towards his emotions at the time where he had almost lost Midori, 'sad' was not a word in his mind.

" _Your wife is in critical condition," The doctor at the hospital had told Orochimaru, who stood in the emergency waiting room after hours of no word about Midori's condition, "With the way things are looking as of an hour ago… we can only save your child."_

"No." Orochimaru said simply as he closed his eyes, "I was... 'afraid' ." He told him son honestly, "Your mother and I haven't always had a good relationship. It's something I've had to work very hard on and it blossomed; so when she laid in the hospital, dying, I acted rashly because I can't live a life without your mother in it."

" _No!" Orochimaru hissed, "Save my wife!" He snarled as he grabbed the doctor by the throat and lifted him off his feet, "That woman in there is the only thing keeping me from slaughtering you and everything you love." He tossed him towards the emergency room doors and nurses rushed to his aid as Orochimaru ordered, "If she doesn't walk out of here with me- then you'll have no reason to walk out of here either."_

"You love mom a lot, huh?" Mitsuki asked with a smile and Orochimaru looked at him and returned the smile as he unlaced his fingers and picked up the pencil, "When does it start? Love?"

"Oh, even I don't know _that_ Mitsuki." Orochimaru chuckled and passed the mechanical pencil to the paper, "Finish your homework, young man." He said and his son diligently went back to finishing his homework, the two passing it between one another until it was done and Orochimaru left the room, going downstairs and stopping at the end of the stairs.

The whole house was quiet. And though the temperature was fine, it felt so- cold. So lifeless. He turned and walked down past the living room to the hallway, opening a door to the laundry room where Midori was dutifully folding clothes and putting them in several, separate piles upon the long shelf at the large table meant for folding the clothes. She carried on as he tried to think of why he came here, trying to figure out some reason why he should be in this particular section of his own house.

 _Mom must have been really, really sad… that her boyfriend died._ His son's words echoed in his mind and it annoyed him. Had that been the starting point for them? Had her broken heart been the reason she adjusted and accepted him? As some sort of stand-in for what she lost? These negative thoughts swirled in his head and it made him more and more irritated by the second. Orochimaru watched her as she absently went about the folding of the laundry, humming a bit to herself to pass the time, oblivious to him even being there.

He wanted to shove all her nice-and-perfectly-folded clothes to the goddamn floor and put her up on the shelf above the washer and dryer where she was folding them, and take her for everything she had. Ravage her to remind her body what her mind faltered to remember. To drive himself into her until he drove away every guilt and doubt he had harbored for 3 years. 3 long years without his wife's touch, without her voice, without her eyes staring at him; and 3 years without her smile. All overpowered by her memories lef to her from the day fought to badly that he spurned her from their home. "Need any help, dear?" He asked calmly as he forced everything else down while she looked back and smiled at him.

"Yes, please." She asked and he walked over as the dryer chimed and she leaned down and opened the door to the dryer as the clothes gradually stopped spinning. "Did you even do laundry while I was gone?" Orochimaru tried not to but he glanced at her ass and noticed that it had actually gotten bigger than the last time he saw it- maybe it was just his worn memories.

"As needed. You usually did everything domestic." Orochimaru said simply and frowned, "I apologize for seeing so unabashedly unappreciative of all your efforts, Midori." She stood up with the clothes in her arms and put them on the shelf to be folded as the sannin walked a bit closer, "I hadn't fully realized how smoothly things run under your rule." She chuckled,

"One ruler for the home and one for the world, hm?" She joked and Orochimaru picked up a shirt and turned it right-side-out, the mother of his child watched as he folded it and proudly set it down, to show off to his newly returned- "Oh my god, there it is. Your weakness." She murmured and he blinked in surprise as she added, "You can't fold worth a damn." She laughed and he chuckled as she took it and moved closer to him, "Run your hands over it to smooth it out, then raise it up, fold over, and fold the sleeves in. Smooth it out, and you're done." Midori explained as she showed it all to him and he watched before he sighed,

"You make it seem so simple." The male sighed and picked up another shirt, following the same steps she did under her watchful eye, "How about now?" She stared at the sloppy folding before smirking,

"Well, you're getting better. Pass me the hangers, we'll just hang up the ones you two wear the most." She said definitively and he complied, helping her put the clothes on hangers. It was calm and tranquil and...nice...to have this type of functioning normality again. They chatted freely and openly about anything but them- mostly their son. "Mistuki's graduating tomorrow, can you believe it? I feel so old." She laughed and he chuckled lightly, "Are you going to go to the graduation and the festival, or just the graduation?"

"Just the graduation, I think." Orochimaru said simply and Midori frowned, "I'm not well-received by Konoha, remember?" She looked away a bit sadly, "But- if anything should happen to either of you while you're out, Mitsuki knows to run and find a phone and call me. I doubt it since it's just a festival, but it's good to be prepared."

"Yeah." She said but the word was said slowly and remorsefully, making him glance at her as she continued to robotically fold the clothes but her eyes were glazed over with something else. "Sometimes, I feel… like I'm imposing on you and Mitsuki by coming back here. Like I should have just… watched from a distance and went somewhere else but…" She put the pair of pants she had folded aside and wiped her eyes, "I didn't know where else to go."

"I never would have guessed you would bother worrying about something like that." Orochimaru said simply, smoothly and gracefully closing the distance between them and gently brushing a tear away, "Mitsuki was worried… and it was a mutual feeling. However, I am glad you came back even if you feel the opposite." He confessed as he slipped his hands about her shoulders and she looked up at him, "Despite what it brings, I am extremely pleased to know that you're under the same roof as I am again, and that you're safe." Despite the tenderness of the moment, he grinned and patted her shoulders as he ruined it by humorously adding, "I'll still be running a pregnancy test on you, just in case." and his ex-lover twitched under his palms,

And after a few little burst of bashful anger from the woman, he was able to calm her down enough to negotiate his way into helping her finish the laundry rather than being kicked out of his own laundry room- no, their laundry room.

When they finished, they left the room and the laundry within it to retire to their shared bedroom. Where Orochimaru would quietly sit on the bed as she bathed before taking his own solemn turn amid the strangeness of it all. He didn't want to shower alone- not when it was more time-effective for them to share the bath or shower. He had spent 3 years worth of lonely showers, but he'd be spending a few more alone as well.

When he had finished, she was in their walk-in closet, looking at her side of the closet as he casually strolled in for his own night clothes to replace the towel that was securely wrapped about his waist. Midori glanced his way to ensure it was him before blinking in surprise as he raised a silent eyebrow. "You've been working out?" She asked and he nodded, "It shows." He glanced down at his current body's toned abdominal muscles. He had always used the same training regimen despite what body he had, but this most recent one was perfectly crafted to suit his needs- and was adjusting quite nicely to the regimen.

"Well, it seems you're a bit plumper yourself." He commented and glanced her way, seeing her blush before looking away from him and back to her clothes.

"Is that… from a medical perspective or a man's?" Midori quietly asked and Orochimaru was a bit surprised himself before he grinned. Progress.

"Both." He answered and she grabbed the most unattractive nightwear she could find and left the closet to change as he chuckled to himself and pulled on a pair of pj pants.


	7. Clashing of Tides- Chpt 1

A/N: It's not that I haven't been making chapters for here, but I got distracted writing up Midori and Orochimaru's back story. Here's those chapters, and when I finish up the original chapter 6, I'll put that up too. Hang in there.

* * *

Mitsuki's Adventures

Side Story- Clashing of Tides

Chapter 1- Midori and Itachi … and Orochimaru

 _Itachi Uchiha. The older brother of Sasuke Uchiha, who was the father of Mitsuki's classmate, Sarada Uchiha. He would have been Sarada's Uncle if he was still alive. And to his mother is he had lived? Who knows. But to Midori, he was so much more than a friend and comrade. He was the 'summer love' that never ended. The shadow in her dreams and the teenager who tossed rocks at her window to steal her kisses in the middle of the night only to return her safely in the morning._

And it was a night similar to that, that Midori began her story because her son needed to know it from beginning to end. How it started as it usually did, with a few pebbles tossed a her window in the dark of the night when everyone was supposed to sleep; the night before she was leaving Konoha. One of her parents, Mitsuki's grandparents, had found some type of job promotion and they were to move; but the move itself brought an extremely rare bout of friction between the Uchiha male and the Noir female, the likes of which they hadn't experienced before. So, the male tip-toed around the near-two-weeks of almost-no communication between the Noir female, which had dwindled suddenly to a word or two a day, and was now tossing pebbles at her window to awaken her.

 _They had been classmates, and though he seemed to hold affections for another one, they were able to keep a whole complex 'friendship' under-wraps; mostly. She was a frequent guest in his home, and vise-verse, as he stopped by her home on the way to the academy every day to walk her to the building and away from her more abusive parents. And it had blossomed into something more from there, despite her family's violent and often very loud protests to their friendship, as the Noir Clan was one of the many clans that believed the Uchiha to have brought about the destruction caused by the Nine-Tailed beasts and made it clear they despised the Clan and their clansmen. But Midori, at her young age, held no reason to hold a grudge over something that didn't involve Itachi or his family; something that happened in the past. It was one of the reasons they bonded._

The window opened after the fifth pebble and she appeared from the dark of her room, silver-hair swishing about her shoulders, "What?" She asked and he looked up at her, then nodded towards the street as a light snow began to fall. It was late October, just after Halloween, and he stood on the sidewalk below her second-story window, in a heavy black coat and a mute scarf wrapped about his neck and face to keep himself warm; but she knew it was him. Who else would toss rocks at her window at a time like that? "I can't. I...I have to pack." She protested softly and he stared up at her,

"If you don't come down, I'll come up." The male replied smoothly and casually, "We need to talk." She looked down at him sadly, wondering whether or not he had silently resolved their fight on his own and wondered if she should try to smooth things over, before she recoiled as he landed on the windowsill without a sound nor a word, "Come." He insisted and she blushed from his strange abruptness which was out of the ordinary.

"Le-Let me get my coat." She murmured softly and he crouched on the windowsill as she tried to grab a coat as quickly and quietly as possible, pulling it on and zipping it up, "Are you alright?" She asked when she stopped in front of him, brushing her hand against his cheek, his eyes red and puffy,

"...I will be." He answered solemnly and jumped down from the windowsill, the young kunoichi following his lead and they walked through the darkened streets to their usual spot; a quiet area in the forest no one else seemed to know of. He held her hand the entire way, which was odd as well, and she followed diligently,

"I'm sorry that I started the fight." She apologized and he glanced back at her a moment before looking forward again, "I didn't mean to push you away."

"You didn't." He said shortly and she smiled, "I've been busy." When they arrived to the spot, the moon was full and glowed it's silvery light down upon the circular patch of grass. He let her sit down first before following suit and they just sat there, holding hands, staring up at the moon and the stars around it. The both of them reveling in the tranquility of the night. "I'm leaving, Midori. And I'd like you to come with me." She looked at him and smiled wryly.

 _And then he told her. Told how how he had slaughtered everyone of his clan members but his younger brother and in one last mission, he needed to leave the village as they would portray him; as a traitor to his people. Despite how he had chosen the path of least bloodshed over the entire clan being attacked and slaughtered like sheep; he gave them as quick and dignified deaths as he could. And with a heavy heart, he had sought her out, not to simply tell her that he was leaving Konoha and everything else behind; but to tell her that it was their chance. Now or never._

 _Their last chance at something better than what they had._

 _They had talked about the concept of marriage before and their ideals and morals aligned. The chemistry was there and these nights they shared were the only times where they could be together, like star-crossed lovers. Their relationship frowned upon heavily by her parents, who would often beat their contempt into her and order her to keep away from him. But she didn't. His family enjoyed her and her company, but the only thing keeping them apart was hers._

"Itachi," She said softly and reached up, hugging him and wrapping her arms around him, saddened by what he had just done; but she knew his reasons. "Where would we even go?" She asked and he rested his forehead against hers as they closed their eyes.

"Anywhere." The Uchiha told her and pulled away, as her scared questions rumbled out and he patiently answered all of them. What would they do? He'd already figured that out. Where would they stay? He had a plan for that. What would their future hold? Well, she was the psychic, not him. All he wanted was her answer, for a starters. "Well?" He asked as he held her hand still, and after a long moment, she squeezed it, "Let me hear it."

"Yes." She said softly and kissed him, and with a smile he pulled her closer and deepened their locked lips.

 _And they parted ways for about an hour. In that time, Itachi told her that he had to tie up some 'loose ends' and Midori visited her family's home to make a bag- but not before the lights flicked on and her very disgruntled father stood in the doorway. After taking one last round of abuse, she and the uchiha fled._

 _To an organization of criminals, known as the 'Akatsuki'. He spoke to someone and secured himself a strong position; however, Mitsuki's mother, Midori, had to contend for hers against one of the current members. She fought them, in private, one on one, but the end result was that her opponent, a man named Kisame Hoshigaki, flew from the forest where they fought and landed at the feet of the other members while Midori came strolling calmly towards them._

 _However, Mitsuki's Father offered no insight as to what type of fighting his Mother had done, as no one had saw it and the man, Kisame, did not remember anything aside from her eyes. Orochimaru, however, waved it off as something to do with perhaps her habit of foretelling certain events, which he also wrote of as something to do with her Kekkei Genkai; but he never had the time to fully investigate and never had even words in his vocabulary to provoke Midori into fighting him._

 _However, the fact was that Midori and Itachi entered the Akatsuki in the only way they had only wished to be; together. And it was made very clear from the beginning, but it was an unspoken rule that Orochimaru, when he arrived, had not seemed to hear._

 _Itachi did what he needed to for the organization while Midori worked on another floor from the one his own room was on, and worked as an accountant and a sort of mission-collector. She collected bounties and their most recent information, gave the compiled paperwork to the Leader of the Organization, who then assigned them to the members as needed; on occasion and on-demand, she would go and give out the bounties herself which was very rarely done. But she mainly did accounting and critically reviewed anything given to her by the Leader as she did reports that the members usually filled out and dropped off to her after their missions._

 _Though Orochimaru had been in the building and with the Organization, it wasn't only until a few months after his joining and getting into the routine that Midori and Orochimaru legitimately met. Over some forms that needed to be filled out regularly. The Members were paired up, and the more responsible ones usually approached Midori first with questions and their own filled out forms to make it easier on the system's complex flow; Mitsuki's Father's partner in the Akatsuki, Sasori, was the one who often did this, though from time to time they were paired up with other members depending on the situation._

 _His parent's meeting, however, started with a knock on the room his Father occupied. And he answered very roughly since he had just been awoken after returning to the base himself a few hours prior,_

"What?" He hissed moodily as he threw open the door, expecting to see his partner as he pushed his bangs out of his face, "I'm trying to...sleep." He said as his vision focused and a woman stood in the hallway outside his room door. "You're not...Sasori."

"No, I'm not." She said with a bit of irritation herself, arms filled with folders upon folders of paperwork, her grey eyes boring into his like hardened bits of ice, "However, he sent me to get a expenditure report form you that he said you had agreed to fill out for once, Mr-" She quickly thumbed through one of the file labeled 'personnel' and pulled out his sheet, scanning it quickly before frowning, "Well, you seem to lack a last name but that's not the point." She said firmly before putting the paper away and looking back at him, "The point is, I needed that paperwork-"

"I'll get it to you later today, promise." He assured, but she held open the door before he could close it,

"-as I was saying, I needed it as soon as you came back. 3 hours ago. You're a grown man, there's no reason you should be 3 hours late, when all you have to do is staple your receipts to the paper and write down a rough outline of where you stopped." The woman scolded and he opened the door, maddened now by her accusations, "As a member you need to be on top of your things."

"Who exactly do you think you're talking to, woman?" He demanded angrily, Itachi coming out of his room and leaning in the threshold of his door, watching, a few of the other members opening their doors ot peek out, "Do you know who I am?"

"No, and I don't care." She said bluntly and added, "I'm the accountant, and those these forms may be a hassle for you and everyone else, but guess who fills them out? Every single member here. Except you, as you shamelessly shrug the duty off onto Sasori." She scolded as he glared at her, chest puffing up to ready a counter-attack; but she didn't let him have it as she shoved a blank form into his chest. "It's your first time filling it out, just staple some receipts on there and write where you went. Too easy for you? Then you shouldn't have a problem turning it into me by noon, unless that's too hard for you?"

"N-No, but mind your tone." He grunted towards her as she walked off and she whipped around and shot him a glare,

"Mind your laziness!" She snapped and stormed off, disappearing behind the elevator doors as the other members laughed at him; except Itachi Uchiha, who stared at Orochimaru. The Sannin looked at the paper before glancing at Itachi- who scoffed and went back into his room as Orochimaru prickled under what seemed to be another silent attack. He was too tired for this shit and quickly returned to his room.

Noon was in an hour and he finally figured out how to fill out the form- what was ridiculously easy and worded so that even the most tired Akatsuki member could fill it out with accuracy and ease. It made him feel like a moron that it had taken him so long to do it, and when the elevator came to the floor below, he exited and walked towards the office that the accountant occupied. Already, the only other female in the building, a purple-haired woman named Konan, was in the hallway and leaning against the wall next to the office's door, as voices came from inside. They steadily grew louder and clearer as the distance between him and the office closed. "- I would appreciate these if they got to me as quickly as possible, you know this." A male voice came in and the female voice of the grey-eyed woman from before protested,

"Sasori's partner took over responsibility of the form this time, and I just talked to him." The other female, Konan, glanced at Orochimaru who stood just in front of her, reluctant to enter the office knowing the Leader was there.

"Pein." Konan said and the Sannin glared at her as the Leader entered into the hallway,

"Oh- Why, Orochimaru, what brings you down here?" Pein, the organization's leader, asked as he crossed his arms, "Hm?" He glanced at the paper in Orochimaru's hand, "OH- delivering you're expenditure report, finally? I needed that as soon as you and Sasori got in. So did Miss Noir."

"She was rude." He said simply and Pein laughed,

"Were you now?" Pein asked the woman in the office who was the same one from before. The woman sat there, long silver hair brushing over mountains of files and paperwork. She nodded to confirm what the Sannin said and Pein laughed, "Well, funny; I told her to be when she needed to be." He laughed and went in, patting her desk, "Good work! I'd like all those papers on my desk in a couple hours, Midori, and-"

"The usual and the works, sir?" She asked and he smirked, giving her an appreciative wink before he left the office, Konan regrouping with him in the hallway as they walked towards the elevator. Orochimaru walked into the office, paper in hand, "Was it as hard as it seemed?" The silver-haired woman, Midori, asked and Orochimaru hesitated, "I apologize for getting loud with you, but the fresher the details, the better the info."

"...A genin could fill these out." He said simply and she smirked, "But...you made them that way." She shrugged, "Where do you want this?"

"Just leave it on the pretty woman's desk." A voice came from behind Orochimaru, who looked behind him. On a couch in the room, Itachi laid comfortably, a book in his lap as he looked at the other man, but didn't say another word and turned a page in his book. "She'll get to it." was the smooth response from the man who used a pulled-up leg as a book stand to read whatever it was that caught his fancy.

"You know, I don't see a point in there being an accountant." Orochimaru said defiantly as the paler-man set the paper on the desk and she took it up quickly. "There's Kakuzu."

"He's the treasury, not accounting." The Uchiha said simply, and Orochimaru looked at what the woman was doing.

She took a few long moments to put her long silvery tresses in a quick and sloppy bun, tying it up and out of her way before writing down what he put down on a notepad and summarizing it all up, adding the numbers, "Thank you for the report, Orochimaru." She said to him with a more friendly smile, before turning back to her work and the Uchiha watched silently from the couch he laid on as the older male reluctantly left the room with a glare in his direction; shutting the office door behind him.

Itachi sat up and put a bookmark in the book, setting it on the coffee table between himself and her desk, "Midori?" He asked and she stopped what she was doing, letting out a shaky breath,

"A bit shaken up, but I'll be alright." She assured and gave him a warm smile, "I'll finish this up quickly, then I'll go get us something to eat?" The woman offered and he picked up his book again with a smile and laid back down, moving around until he got comfortable. She continued where she left off,

"The other forms?" Sasori asked of his partner on the floor above them, "There's the expenditure form and the mission form, but that's about it. Midori keeps it simple for us." He said nonchalantly as he continued to work on the puppet laid on his carpentry table, screwing something into it.

"Then why is her office full of folders?" Orochimaru asked, walking in and sitting on the bed as if he was invited; but the only thing he invited was a distrusting glance from his partner.

"...A lot of that is Kakuzu. They work as a team, but he usually demands extensive reports from her about whether or not the budget will cover what we used it for and if it was beneficial or not." Sasori explained, setting his screwdriver aside and pulling out pencil, scribbling something down on a piece of paper already teaming with doodles and formulas. "She had those mountains of folders and files so she can show Kakuzu she's 'swamped' when he tries to barge in and protest that the budget can't support you and the other members eating." Orochimaru realized gradually that she had been doing that, "Not that Kakuzu or myself care, we don't eat-" There was a knock on the door,

"Sasori, do you have the mission form? My computer broke down a few minutes ago- again- and I won't be able to access my email to update the archives and wrap sheets." Midori asked casually as she stepped into the room, within the threshold anyway, her back to Orochimaru as Sasori looked over.

"Yes; come in." He said and she murmured a 'thank you' as he went into another part of his room while she walked over to the carpenter's table, looking over his doodles. Orochimaru watched as she picked up the pencil he had set down and erased a bit of his formula before re-writing it as he came back in, "Hm? Adjusting things?"

"Sorry. " She said as she set the pencil down while he came over and stood next to her, reading over the formula and laughing, "It only made sense to me."

"No, no, of course it makes sense! Here's your papers, clever woman." Sasori said as he got back into his stool and waved her off, "Oh- you adjusted this too?" She smiled as she looked over the papers,

"Yes, thank you Sasori for another brilliantly detailed report. I'll put it up when we come back." She said sweetly, "Do you want me to pick you up something, while we're out, Sasori?" Midori offered and he looked over his work station before looking at her, telling her something but Orochimaru only paid attention to her words, "I'll ask him to remind me on the way back, thanks again." She said before walking out and Sasori turned back to his work,

"She'd make someone a wonderful wife someday; " Sasori said aloud to Orochimaru but didn't look away from his work, "However, that would be if she didn't come as a package deal. What a pity." He chuckled as Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, "Nice smile, good form, those eyes? She'd make a wonderful puppet- but unlike the rest of you-" He held up the head of his puppet and glanced back at Orochimaru, "I'll wait until she's...out of commission." With a throaty laugh, almost mocking in nature, Sasori continued to work as his partner got up and left the room.


	8. Clashing of Tides- Chpt 2

Mitsuki's Adventures

Side Story- Clashing of Tides

Chapter 2- How things run here

"-Please do so in a timely manner." The Leader finished his sentence to the two Akatsuki Members standing between him and the entrance to the building, the entrance to their backs. A bounty mission had been given to Kakuzu, the Akatsuki's Treasurer- and Midori, their Accountant. It was their first mission since Orochimaru had joined, and he watched, as did a couple others in the room- Sasori sitting across the table off to the side of the room, where they sat casually over a game of shogi.

"Do they do missions often?" Orochimaru asked his partner who didn't look at him, but focused on the board and planning his next move.

"Who?" Sasori asked absently as Midori smiled warmly up at Kakuzu as Sasori glanced up before turning his gaze back to the board. "Them? Usually if we have a few days in between missions free, they do." Orochimaru looked at him,

"What do they do?" The paler-male asked curiously, noting that unlike Kakuzu and the other member of the Akatsuki, Midori wore an elegant kimono and her hair was put up. It was a black silk with branches of a cherry blossom tree on it, ornately done with silver and pale pink embroidery.

"Their jobs, I presume." Sasori said bluntly as he took his time scanning the board.

"You know, I noticed she doesn't wear a cloak or anything linking her to Akatsuki." Orochimaru pointed out and Sasori looked up at him,

"Oh, Midori?" He replied smoothly, "She does, from time to time, but she's not allowed to when she goes on missions; like with Kakuzu, just now. It's been like that ever since I got here." Sasori moved a piece and voiced, "Checkmate. You need to pay more attention." The Sannin glanced at the board and hissed his disapproval at the sneaky move, "Another game, perhaps?"

"I'm not in the mood anymore." Orochimaru grumbled and Sasori stood up calmly,

"Pity; well, since you're so interested, her office is usually unlocked." Sasori said as he walked off and waved a hand while he called back, "We'll play later, I'm sure." Orochimaru got to his feet and smirked at the aloof option of another opportunity to learn more from his partner.

* * *

Another wanted criminal collapsed before Midori. "4." She voiced, looking around the large room, three other bodies scattered about. She could have sworn there had been five of them, but perhaps-

"There you are, woman." A gruff voice came from behind her and she took her time, turning around properly in the tall and ornate geta she wore with her kimono, to face him. A sword in his left hand, glinted in the dim light that one of the many small windows in the room allowed in. And her own reflection danced on its blade like a shard of a mirror, her eyes flickering up to meet his. "Where's that man that was with you? That tall feller." Midori clasped her hands at her waist delicately,

"What man?" She asked simply and calmly without a trace of any emotion in her voice.

"Playing dumb? Shame that you have to die then." The man grinned and she didn't react as he charged towards her before falling over and hit the floor a yard or so away from her feet. "Ngh-" He tried to get up and found his food stuck on something, glancing back.

At the angle he was at, he could see it now. A wire was wrapped around his legs; and the more he tried to get free, the tighter they wrapped about his legs and the deeper they dug into his skin and tendons. She looked down at him then looked away as another figure slowly lowered himself from the ceiling, skillfully avoiding the almost invisible and undetectable wires around her. "Do we want them alive?"

"Bounty's bigger with him dead." Kakuzu purred and his own black threads slipped out- before being severed by the wires he didn't see. He lowered them to the floor and grabbed the frantic man's legs, severing the wire before pulling him over to himself and snapping his neck.

"That's 5 for me." Midori said and Kakuzu scoffed,

"I snapped his neck, Midori. He's mine. You're at 4." Kakuzu said firmly and she frowned, "However, we'll talk on it later, I might just give it to you." Midori smiled, "Clean this shit up." He grumbled and her smile remained on his gradually fading back as he walked off.

* * *

Orochimaru opened the door to the office, looking directly to the couch to see if an Uchiha lurked around. He didn't. The office was empty, and he walked in, shutting the door behind him. Idly, he flicked open one of the folders on her desk, filled with papers- blank. And as he picked up the folder and thumbed through them, they were all blank.

Odd, but Sasori's words rang out in his mind. _She does it to avoid a fight with Kakuzu._ Orochimaru looked around the room for any trace of the woman and found none.

Come to think of it, he hadn't heard of her having a room on the base either. He continued to look through the folders, trying to find something real. Something that solidified her existence, that she wasn't just some illusion or genjutsu that had been put on him. All of the folders held nothing to quench his thirst, full of empty papers and he moved behind the desk, checking the drawers and found more folders but these were labeled.

He pulled one folder out and found it to be some sort of folder on her and he sighed a bit with relief. A headshot of her smiling for her identification picture was taped to the top left corner, but aside from her name and where she came from, everything else was blacked out with a black marker. It was called 'censoring' but all Orochimaru called it was 'irritating'. But her whole name was there, and she was from Konoha. It wasn't much to go on, but something bothered him even more; the fact that her last name was 'Uchiha'- "Can I help you?" He looked back, holding the file, Midori standing in the doorway.

"...I was...under the impression you wouldn't be back for a few days." Orochimaru said as he tried to think up something to make his actions seem just, but she crossed her arms,

"Never, I have too much to do." She said and looked about the room, seeing where he'd picked up files and dropped them without a care upon the ground, scattering the blank insides across the furniture and floor. "So…" He followed her gaze and looked at the floor, not having personally noticed the mess he made before he looked at her,

"I can pick this up." He told her and put the file back in her drawer as she put a hand to her head, "Perhaps I could take you for a cup of coffee tomorrow morning to make up for it?" Orochimaru offered and she looked at him,

"I have plans." She said and grabbed the door handle, "I'm- going to shut this and pretend this never happened, then hope to come to a clean office tomorrow morning." Midori told him and voiced quietly, "Uh, Night." And shut the door, walking off as he stood there; awkward and alone. It hadn't gone great nor had it gone badly, but still he cleaned up and left, taking the elevator back to the upper floor, exhaling deeply as the doors opened and blinked.

The woman disappeared into Itachi's room and shut the door behind her, no one saying anything even when they watched her enter- and no one moved to stop her. They just carried on. He went to his own room and wondered about it and that's when it clicked-

They were a couple. It was why Itachi was in her office. Why he stood up quickly to sent him on his way. _We are going out…_ Her voice echoed in his head from when she stepped into Sasori's room when he was there. And why no one was disturbed by her going into his room.

Why did his chest ache so? Why did it tighten so painfully at this realization? She wasn't the first woman to belong to someone else.

It pained him and he made a small snake summon, sending it out to Itachi's room where it crept in the next time she opened and closed the door, and through its eyes he watched against a twinge of shame.

It seemed being in his own head had taken longer than he thought, for she had already showered and was already walking around the room in just one of, presumably, Itachi's shirts. Her long silver hair hung about her elbows and she was kind of just- standing in the middle of the room, smiling. Her smile grew warmer and happier as she hugged herself and the shirt closer to her, giddy, "We made it. We made it." She said a few times, almost sounding tearful, before climbing under the bed's sheets and slipping into the empty bed, wrapping herself up in them even when Itachi was nowhere around.

Orochimaru dispelled the snake and the scene left a bad taste in his mouth. Whatever it was, it reminded him of something bitter as he tried to focus on falling asleep in his own room instead of going down the hall.

When he next woke up, it was morning and he got up, showered and dressed then left the room. Kakuzu was in the living area this morning, reading a paper and drinking some coffee. "You weren't gone long." Orochimaru said, pouring himself a cup of coffee as he tried to make nonchalant conversation. The other man grunted,

"No." He drank some of his coffee, setting the mug down as he swallowed it down while Orochimaru pulled out a chair from across the table and helped himself to it,

"I suppose- Collecting bounties is easier with an attractive woman to lure them in." Orochimaru said as he picked up a magazine one of his "house mates" had carelessly left about and began to flip through it. As if he was actually interested in this month's new recipe for pork loin.

"Indeed. They get so caught up in finding her, it makes it much easier for me." Kakuzu said, "Quick money. Just put her in a room and I'm raking it in; as long as she gets her count, she's sated." The other member turned a page of his newspaper and Orochimaru nodded,

"Yeah; but don't you feel undermined by having to work with a woman? Must be difficult if she happens to...not listen." Orochimaru said, thinking that perhaps if he turned his house mates against her, they would ostracize her and it would be that much easier to swoop in and take her as his own; but that wasn't the case. Though Kakuzu did pause for a long moment, as if giving his memory and mind a chance to recall a time where she had been ever-so defiant.

"Wouldn't know. She hasn't been." He said gruffly, folding the paper over a few times to get a close focus on the article he wanted to read now, "It's hard to carry all the bodies, yes; but she stays out of my way." He took another swig of his coffee, "No complaints, hard-working; just wants her kills accounted for, which I don't mind." Itachi's door opened and Midori came out, fully dressed for the day, as she walked into the communal area while Kakuzu set his mug down, "Morning, Midori." He greeted simply and she smiled at him,

"Morning, Kakuzu. Need a refill?" She asked as she picked up the coffee canister and he equally held up his mug, letting her fill it up before she glanced at Orochimaru's mug which he had steadily been drinking. "Do you want a refill too?" She asked him and he nodded, pulling away as she filled his mug before going back to the small kitchenette area and pulling down a glass for herself. "What's going on with those forms, Kakuzu?"

"You and your damn forms, woman." Kakuzu chuckled as he set down his paper, "They're on your desk, filled out accordingly and you just need to file them away; I've given copies to the Leader already and I've done my edits while you were sleeping." She smiled happily at this news as he calmly continued to drink his coffee, "However, next time I win- you're doing all of that shit by yourself, even my side."

"As always, thank you, Kakuzu. I appreciate it." Midori said as she walked away and he nodded,

"I'd like turkey this year. Figure it out." Kakuzu said to her simply as she started to walk off, "You hear me?" He growled and she gave him a thumbs-up as she drank some of her own coffee before disappearing down the hall.

"Is there something important about turkey?" Orochimaru asked as Sasori came out into the area,

"You came quite after the holidays, so you wouldn't know." Sasori said simply to his partner as he pulled out a chair at the table, "Midori cooks for all of us during the holidays, since we usually just stay here anyways. With thanksgiving coming up, she takes a tally of what we want for the year as the main course." Sasori said and Orochimaru got up and pulled out the chair across from him, sitting down as Sasori set up the board for the two of them,

"And she doesn't do it regularly?" Orochimaru asked and Sasori scoffed,

"Who do you think makes the breakfast you eat in the morning? One of us?" Sasori chuckled, "The smell of it is really good, so I doubt her cooking tastes awful." Orochimaru wondered what he meant a moment before remembering that Sasori only had a heart- no other organs. Kakuzu finished his coffee and washed the cup before walking off down the hall with his paper and Orochimaru questioned,

"Don't you want to taste it, sometimes? The forbidden fruit?"

His partner smirked as he moved a pawn forward to begin the game,

"Oh yes," Sasori answered immediately with a dark grin, "But I have ways of fulfilling my...appetites. One in my position need only be more creative than the norm." He glanced at his partner and smirked, "Perhaps a lesson you should teach yourself too, hm?" The Sannin sighed and reluctantly moved his own shogi piece as he tried to think of some type of cunning plan.

He wanted to know why her last name was 'uchiha' when she, clearly, did not have the tall tale eyes or hair that came from their clan. She might have been married to the only Uchiha in the building, but neither of them wore or displayed a wedding ring or any type of ring of any sort besides Itachi's akatsuki ring. They had both come from Konoha as defected nin, didn't they? Perhaps she thought it best to change her last name? But what purpose would that serve- "Checkmate." Sasori said unenthusiastically, unimpressed by the easily won game as Orochimaru scanned the board. He fucking hated this game, seriously, why did he keep playing it with Sasori anyways? "Another game that you'll keep your mind in this time?"

"...Yeah." He quietly agreed and reset the board this time.

After a few more days of meandering around and reading, Orochimaru had finally planned to make his move as he laid in his bed. Every night he sent a small snake summon to her room to watch her, and every night she continued like normal as he tried to find some reason how she could have easily beaten an Akatsuki member and gotten into the organization.

Then, Itachi returned one night, after she had fallen asleep, the sound of the door opening and closing from his summon's ears alerted Orochimaru.

He watched as the Uchiha took off his shirt and tossed it into the laundry hamper in the dark, going over to the sleeping woman and kissing her on the head. She stirred a bit and a smile spread across her face as he unbuckled his belt to his pants, kissing her softly as she murmured something to him, "You gonna sleep?" She asked sleepily and he nodded, then discarded the rest of his clothes in the bathroom. The sound of the shower running filled the room and the soft steam wafted out, the Uchiha exiting the bathroom casually in a pair of boxers as he towel-dried his hair. When he had pulled on a pair of pajama pants, he flopped onto the bed beside her, causing the woman to be propelled a few inches in the air before she landed on the bed while he chuckled, "Mean!" She grumbled as he pulled the covers up for her to scoot closer to him, then wrapped the covers around her.

After a few long minutes, she fell asleep against his chest and Itachi remained awake, watching the snake summon in the dark- and Orochimaru knew it. But, either too tired to do anything or too tired to care, the Uchiha fell asleep with an arm around his woman. Orochimaru cancelled the summon and sighed, covering his face.

Out of all the women in the world, why did he have to want the one that was already with an Uchiha? As he opened his eyes he solidified the notion that if he really wanted her; Itachi would simply have to die.


	9. My Graduation Morning

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 7- My Graduation Morning

In the morning when Mitsuki woke up, he came down to a surprising sight; a cold kitchen and an empty table. He stood and stared in wonder and awe before tip-toeing back up the stairs to the second floor and checking the clock. It was an hour earlier than he usually woke up and then he snuck over to his parents room and peeking inside.

His Father was asleep beside his mother, lying on his back and holding her close as he slept; His mother laying against him with her head on the area of his shoulder and his chest, her long silvery hair contrasting against the deep plum sheets. Her arm wrapped about his father's waist. Mitsuki smiled hopefully, watching his parents sleep- and noticing the alarm hadn't been set on their own clock which quietly resided on a nightstand next to the matching bed frame.

Since his mother had gotten back he had noticed things between his parents were… strained… to say the least, but they both seemed to be trying. Like trying to turn on a television with two remote controls, it just seemed that some things didn't connect well between them; but their son accredited this to the time that had been lost.

It gave him hope to see his parents, snuggled up like they used to before his mother left, and it made Mitsuki happy. That even when she was asleep, his Mother still snuggled and rested on his Father; subconsciously aware that his Father would take care of her. As he usually did when she fell asleep, even when Mitsuki was growing up.

No matter how badly they fought, eventually his Mother would fall asleep somewhere and his Father was always quick and punctual to go, collect her, bring her home, and put her in bed. It was the one thing that Mitsuki didn't mind watching or helping with; because it was a ray of hope. That things would get better because even if his Father started most of the fights, his Father was the same one to go and take care of his Mother.

Now, Mitsuki silently watched as they slept- until the light from the hallway shining on his Father's face finally woke him up and he turned his head towards the door, "Mitsuki?" He questioned as he lifted his left hand to rub at his eyes, "Shouldn't you be at school?" Came his sleepy question and Mitsuki's answer was firm,

"Not yet… I got excited and woke up really early…" Mitsuki answered sheepishly and his Father looked to the woman laying on him then glanced at the clock, groaning softly when he realized the alarm had not been set. "So, um, is Mom staying?" Mitsuki asked to try and make conversation with his slowly-awakening parent.

"It is 6 am, Mitsuki." His Father answered in a hushed but firm whisper as his Mother stirred and groaned softly, "Now is not the time."

Before his son could protest, the very firm and sleep-muffled words of his Mother arose from the darkness and both males tensed, "Shut. Up." The order was firm and Mitsuki gulped. His Father waved him out with a free hand and whispered something to Mitsuki's Mother-

Whose very prompt response was to put her hand on his face and push him into the bed again when he tried to sit up, "QUIET."

Mitsuki shut the door and went to his room to sit on the bed anxiously. Today was the day he graduated from the academy and became a full-fledged genin- and it was also the day he was assigned to a team. He had worked hard to fix up his hair- but it seemed unmanageable as always and he frowned a bit.

His Mother had her long, beautiful and silver hair. His Father had really nice jet black hair too. And then there was Mitsuki, with his short, crazy, silvery-blue hair that was unkempt and defiant. He wondered if it would be more manageable when he grew older as his Father left his bedroom and peeked into his room, "Breakfast?" His Father offered and Mitsuki got to his feet, following his parent down as he cast a nervous glance at his parents' closed bedroom door before continuing down the stairs, "Excuse your mom, she's just really tired." His Father admitted after pouring himself a cup of coffee (on it's own pre-set timer to brew without his parent's approval and memory), sipping from the mug.

"Because of sex?" Mitsuki asked frankly and his Father spewed out the coffee he was drinking, coughing and hacking on the black liquid while his son leapt into action and patted his back. Once his Father had regained his composure, he quickly assured his son that it was folding laundry that had kept the two adults in the house awake until the wee-hours of the morning; not his son's offered assumption.

"Your Mother stayed up longer than I did, to make sure your kimonos were ready for the festival properly; her bad temper is because of her lack of sleep." His Father said simply as he cracked a few eggs and put them into a warmed skillet to make breakfast.

"Dad." Orochimaru looked back at his son who looked him square in the eye and whispered, "Don't fuck this up." And quickly went up the stairs before his father could either react nor punish him, and quickly slipped into the only place he knew he'd be safe- his parent's room. Where his mother slept.

It had been a bad habit and a common tactic, because despite much of their past, his Father had never been fond of disrupting his mother's slumber. She tended to the house and the chores and took care of Mitsuki, doing everything domestic was exhausting and he allowed her to usually collect as much sleep as she could. And since his Father has already broken the eggs, he wasn't going to leave the stove anytime soon to chase after his son who crept into his rebellious phase.

"Mom?" Mitsuki asked softly and there was a sleepy but questioning moan from the bed, his mother turning slightly towards him as she covered her eyes in her sleep, "Are you having breakfast with us this morning?"

"Mhm." She sleepily answered and Mitsuki turned to leave, "Mikki?" She asked and he perked up as she sat up, silver hair falling about on the sheets and smiled at him with sleepy and motherly love, "Happy graduation day, Mikki." He smiled excitedly, giddy with happiness and she ruffled his hair, "My little Mikki is a gennin; I'm so proud of you, Mitsuki." She said quietly to him and his smile broadened as she gently nudged him towards the door, "Go on now, young man, and if your father's not busy, send him up here."

"Why?" Mitsuki asked at the last part and she gave another aloof smile,

"I'm not feeling so well, and I'd rather have your Father's opinion on it before heading into the shower." His Mother answered honestly and he nodded, leaving the room as she picked up her hair brush from the nightstand beside her. As he descended the stairs to the kitchen, his father looked over with a scolding ready in his yellow eyes before his son pointed to the second floor,

"Mom isn't feeling good." Something flickered across his father's features for a fraction of a second before his son offered, "I'll watch the food." His Father nodded and they traded places as Mitsuki pushed the eggs about in their skillet. He paused to get the milk from the fridge and pour a bit in the eggs- a tactic that slipped his father's mind- before putting the carton into the sink. After a few minutes passed, he paused again as he picked up the sound of running water from upstairs and sighed a bit in relief as his father returned to the kitchen. "How's mom?" He inquired as he moved aside to let his Father take over cooking again,

"She's fine." His Father said vaguely and after seeing his son's stern and inquisitive look, he explained himself. "She's been having trouble sleeping, and the lack of sleep has caught up to her; After you go off to school, We'll go by the pharmacy and get her some medicine."

"Can't you make it here?" Mitsuki asked as he sat down while his Father sighed,

"I used the ingredients needed for other experiments and techniques I'm working on out at the lab." His Father sheepishly admitted before turning halfway towards his son and pointing the wooden spoon he was using to stir the eggs, at his offspring, " _However_ I told her that we're buying her medicine. So stick to it." He turned his attention back to the eggs as Mitsuki looked at his back,

"...Is it because she was gone for a while?" Mitsuki asked and his Father added a few things to the skillet; seasonings.

"It could be. When you travel more often then your body is used to, your immune system weakens while you travel and can become susceptible to whatever allergens and germs are found in those new places you visit. If your immune system is weak or compromised, it could be extremely bad for you." His Father explained and Mitsuki thought about it,

"So… Mom leaving and coming back could have made her immune system weak because the transition; but she'll be able to recover, right?" Mitsuki asked hopefully and his Father didn't answer right away, making his son panic a bit, "She'll be ok, right? Dad?"

"Mitsuki, stop." His Father said firmly as he turned to him, his son looking at him with worry, "I know you're scared; I understand, but your mother is a strong and resilient woman." His Father clarified and Mitsuki relaxed, "Some medicine and some sleep is all she needs, then she'll be herself again. And then we'll go to your graduation and then you two can go to the festival."

Mitsuki crossed his arms on the table and laid his chin on top, looking at his Father's back, "Do you think her acute memory loss is a technique of sometype?" His Father plated the food as the sound of running water stopped.

"As far as I know, there isn't any technique known to ninja or clan that could affect someone's memory; however…" His father hesitated as he chopped up the eggs into smaller bits, "There are a wide variety of drugs and poisons that could erase a small span of time; but for 3 years worth of memories, the amounts of any one of those needed would cause catastrophic damage on the nervous system and the brain because of how high the dosage would have to be." His Father explained as he pulled down glasses and pulled out a jug of orange juice. "Rest assured, I have conducted a variety of tests on your mom to see how extensive the damage is."

"How bad is it?" Mitsuki asked and sat up as his father set a plate of eggs in front of him and a glass of orange juice while his son whispered, "Does she have a month to live?" His father frowned, "Is that why you've been so nice?"

"You need to stop staying up and watching those science fiction movies; they're garbage and fiction." His Father said firmly but returned to the counter to pick up the plate meant for himself and his Mother, setting them at the table, "As far as I can tell, there's no lasting damage. Whatever wounds were there have been healing, and though abnormal it's more helpful than harmful."

His Mother came down the stairs, dressed and ready for the day, long wet hair braided and long down her back. She pulled out the chair next to her soon and smiled at Mitsuki who returned the smile. "Morning." She greeted sleepily as his Father set down a glass in front of her. She compliantly tilted her head back so that he could check her temperature with the back of his hand to her forehead and briskly touch his fingertips to the sides of her throat before he pulled away to wash his hands at the sink.

"Your son is worried about you, however, I assured him about our plans for the day." His Father said from the sink and his Mother looked at him with a mischievous smile; her son looking away a bit embarrassed.

"So, it's your graduation day today, Mikki; but it's also the day you get assigned a to a genin team." His mother said and her son looked back at her, an excited twinkle in his eye, "Are you excited?"

"Yes!" Mitsuki said a bit too loud as his father sat down at the table, his parents grinning, "Mom, were you on a team? Dad was on a team with Jiriya and Tsunade." His mother nodded,

"A real long time ago." His mother answered and has a sip of orange juice before adding, "When I was in the Akatsuki, they would put us in pairs depending on the type of job that needed to be done."

"Why type of jutsu do you use, mom?" Mitsuki asked and she glanced at him, "Dad won't tell me."

"Super secret ones." His mother answer nonchalantly and his Father have a sarcastic half grin and mouthed in her direction one word; 'Nice'. To which she responded by driving some orange juice and flipping him off out of their son's line of vision before setting the glass down and turning her attention back to their son. "Are you excited for the festival, Mitsuki?" His mother asked and he nodded,

"Do you think we could train before the festival, mom?" Mitsuki asked and she blinked, "Dad's been training me but… It's been 3 years and… I mean, if you can't-" She put a hand on his head and ruffled his hair with a smile,

"You don't need to be so apprehensive about asking for stuff, Mitsuki." She told him as he looked at her, "I would love to help you train, but how about after the festival? I don't want you to have difficulty being up and about." Mitsuki smiled again as she added, "I won't go easy on you just because you're my son."

"And I promise not to go easy on you because you're a woman." Mitsuki replied and she smiled proudly at Orochimaru who was pleased with the answer himself as he chewed on a bite of eggs, "Mom, can I help you do your hair for the festival?"

"Sure." She replied before pointing to his untouched breakfast and he turned his attention to it as his Mother ate her own portion, "Thanks for breakfast, Oro."

"Thanks for getting the last 3 years worth of laundry done in one night." His Father replied before adding on, "How are you feeling? Well enough to go and get medicine?" She continued swallowed a few bites and nodded- before pausing. "Dear?" He questioned before she quickly got up and ran to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and they both watched before they heard coughing. His Father sighed before Mitsuki spoke up,

"Why don't you just tell Mom you still love her?" Mitsuki asked and his Father looked at him, "Is it really that hard to put your ego aside and just tell her?" Before his father could say anything, Mitsuki added, "Oh! Maybe you should take Mom out somewhere since you'll be out and about anyways." His father finished his food and chased it down with some orange juice before wiping his mouth with a napkin as he began to reply to his son,

"Thank you, Mitsuki, but I don't need relationship advice from-" "She still likes you." Mitsuki interjected and his Father blinked in a fleeting moment of surprise, "I'm pretty sure that the way you guys look at each other when you're not fighting- that's what 'love' is, but if you guys love each other, why do you fight?" His Father just stared at him blankly and his son added on, "Like, if you love Mom so much, why do you treat her so bad? I think she's kind of, maybe, waiting on you to actually show that you want to be with her instead of the other way around."

Before Orochimaru could speak up for himself, the door to the bathroom opened and his Mother came out, "Are you alright, dear?" His Father asked and she slowly shook her head in a 'no'. He got up and led her to the table, helping her down into a chair before busying himself with cleaning up as Mitsuki looked at her with worry. However, his Mother smiled reassuringly at him,

"I'll be fine, Mikki, so please focus on your happy day." She told him as Orochimaru set a glass of water in front of her on his way to collect Mitsuki's dishes; which she accepted with a tired smile and drank heartily.

"Mom, after the festival, we can train and talk about everything, right?" Mitsuki asked and his parents looked a bit confused and surprised before Mitsuki added on, "Dad doesn't talk a lot about your past, but I want to know all of it. You'll tell me, right?" He asked boldly and she smiled,

"Mhm." She answered simply and his smile got bigger, before he left the house and they both waved at him as he left.

"He's got your smile." Orochimaru voiced and Midori let out a sigh of relief as they both said at the same time, "Thank God."


	10. My Graduation Day

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 8- My Graduation Day

While his mother had given him a kind heart, his father had given him his own strictness in regards to studies as Mitsuki sat in his seat in the classroom; trying not to look around for any indication on his classmate's faces on who was to be within his team. He was so excited.

Even if his morning had been a bit jumbled, and his Mother was a bit under the weather, she had said something he'd wanted to hear from her after 3 years without her motherly ways.

'I'm so proud of you, Mitsuki.'

The words played over and over in his head despite the sleepy honeyed-voice that had said them. Still, even though his father usually praised his good efforts, he liked to hear it from his mom to. His Father didn't smile often; but mother did.

Still, they seemed to go together like water and oil; but still, his mother had lost two children before Mitsuki was born. That means that they had to… be intimate… at some points. He had been asleep when his parents had argued and she had left- only waking up the next morning to find his father, asleep at the kitchen table. In the chair nearest the door,

" _She went to clear her head." His father said as he set breakfast down after Mitsuki had woken him up, before sending him off to school with a smile. "Probably be home just before you get out of school- like always." But she hadn't show up and he had walked home, alone, for the first time since going to school._

' _Mikki-Chan!' Wasn't the first thing that he heard that day. He had waited and looked around; just in case she had been late. But she never was. And his father abruptly stood from the table when he had gotten home. Probably because he expected the person to walk through the door to be his mother too. "You chased her off!" Mitsuki had yelled at him and his Father stood there, silent but apprehensive. After his outburst, his father had left to go and find her, leaving a clone with his son for the first time; for a whole week. Nothing. His mother had been the one to solve all the domestic problems and his father just kind of - "Mom's out there somewhere!" He had yelled at his father when he returned empty-handed, Mitsuki crying, "You have to go help her! She's out there and she's hurt or something-!" His father hugged him close, as he cried and sobbed._

But she had come back and it was so much better. It was chocolate chip pancakes. It was late-night movies on school nights. It was the witty-banter at the table. It was her big and sunshine-warm smile when she saw him; full of pride and motherly love; when he came down for breakfast or dinner or anytime she saw him. And she commanded the foreground again and his father was once more, became master of the background.

He was getting a team. He was graduating. And his family was slowly coming back together, like pieces of a ripped photograph being taped together. Things were going really, really good; but that's usually when something really, really bad happened, wasn't it?

What type of team would he be on? His father's team became legendary shinobi; and His mother's- ' _We were paired up, depending on the mission'-_ But still, she was dating Itachi Uchiha; so logically, they were always paired up, right? He knew that no matter his teammates, his mother would still be proud of him- maybe his father too. Maybe. It was going to be a good day- "Mitsuki." He perked up and replied to his name being called, "You'll be in Team Konohamaru with Sarada Uchiha and Boruto Uzumaki."

He was being placed with the two prodigies in all of the Hidden Leaf Village. He forced his excitement and happiness down and gave a cool smile and nod.

The teacher passed around papers to remind them of their teammate and their presiding teachers, with tips from shinobi before them on teamwork and adjusting to a new team; but Mitsuki didn't mind the paper too much as he did the headband that would came with it at the ceremony in a few hours. He was officially a Genin. Maybe not the most illustrious rank, but still it was a stepping stone towards a better one. A step before Chunin- and after that, Jonin. Maybe even ANBU after that?

He impatiently awaited for class to be over and met up with his teammates, "Boruto, Sarada!" He waved and they grinned and waved back,

"Glad you're on our side." Sarada smiled and Boruto grinned cheekily as he put his hands behind his head, "It's great to graduate, right? Now we can slack off!" Mitsuki grinned, "You going to the festival too, Mitsuki?" He nodded excitedly,

"I got my kimono picked out. Will your parents be there?" Mitsuki asked and the two looked at each other,

"My Mom will, for sure- but my Dad…" Sarada said and Boruto sighed, "Mine won't be there; my mom and sister will though." Mitsuki blinked; having forgotten that Boruto had a younger sister. Before he asked what it was like to have a sibling, he remembered that he'd offered to help his mother get ready for the festival. He excused himself from his friends and ran home with the paper folded neatly and tucked into his pocket.

His parents were in the kitchen, waiting for him when he got back and he let himself in; his Mother sitting at the table drinking what seemed to be tea, while his father looked over from the kitchen sink. "Welcome home, Mikki." His mother smiled and he grinned back as he switched into his house shoes, "Who did they pair you up with?" She asked giddily, patting the table where an empty seat was adjacent from her. Mitsuki pulled out the chair and gave the paper to his Father but looked at his Mother as she smiled at him.

"They paired me with my friends, Sarada Uchiha and Boruto Uzumaki, Mom." Mitsuki said proudly and she couldn't stop smiling; a contagious thing in the household after his little announcement to his small family.

"I'm so happy for you, Mikki!" His Mother praised and His Father shared the infectious smile of affection at his son,

"Congratulations, Mitsuki. I'm proud of you." His Father's words made him even that much happier. "From now on, you'll be on missions with them; so it would be a good idea to train with them too." Mitsuki's smile faltered a bit. Did that mean he couldn't train with his parents any longer? He looked to his Mother for an answer and she smiled pleasantly at him,

"Training with them will strengthen your ability to work as a team, Mikki, but you can still train with us if you want to." She confirmed and he nodded, "If you want, you can still help me with my hair; that way, it won't take too long to change after your ceremony for the festival."

Worry flickered across Mitsuki's face as his Father poured himself a cup of tea. "Will you be alright, Mom?" She smiled at him,

"I got some medicine and rest; I should be alright." She said with a little yawn, "Oro, do you remember that dress you got me from the Mist Village?" His Father looked at her and nodded before smirking, "Yes, that one. It's not in the bedroom closet."

"I think it's in the guest bedroom. I'll go check." His Father voiced and got to his feet, leaving the table with tea cup in hand; and when he was out of earshot, Mitsuki turned to his mother,

"When you guys were out, what did you do?" He inquired 'sneakily'. But from his mother's mischievous smirk, he knew that she was on to him. She leaned in towards him with the smirk still on her lips,

"I would appreciate it, if you didn't berate your Father about talking to me; that's my job." She told him and Mitsuki tensed a bit before she pulled away, "But I'll overlook just this once; because without your little jabs, our day probably wouldn't had gone so well." Mitsuki beamed at her, "We'll talk about it when we get home from the Festival, as we should; As a family." His Father returned to the kitchen, holding the requested dress and she smiled, "There it is! Do you think it needs dry-cleaning?" She stopped in front of His Father who held the dress up to her- and they both frowned as Mitsuki awed.

It was a simple yet elegant dress with a hem of silvery fabric to make a halter top, before it had a gradient effect to a shimmering and deep black at an empire waistline, then had a gradient from black to the shimmery silver that held flecks and stands of shiny blue when it caught the sun just right. "Wow!" Mitsuki said and went over to look at it from the front where his father held it up so that one could imagine what it would look like. "You'll look so nice, mom!" Mitsuki said before noticing their faces and registered their held-back looks, "What's the matter?"

"There's a tear, Mikki." His Mother replied sadly and took it from his father's hand, turning it to reveal the long tear down the side of the dress that reached from the underarm to about mid-thigh and sighed, "We can't fix it in time."

"But Mom, if you cut another rip in the side, and sew that one up a bit, you should be fine, right?" Mitsuki offered and his Father made a disagreeable face; a sign that his father didn't approve of the idea. And therefore, it wasn't going to happen.

"How clever!" His Mother smiled and ruffled her son's hair, who happily accepted the parental attention, "Oro, do you think you could pick something else out for me while Mikki does my hair?" His Father smirked and nodded, leaving to do so while Mitsuki pulled at his mother's hand, "Yes, Yes." She agreed and let him lead her up the stairs to her bedroom.

Though he wasn't allowed in much, when he was, their bedroom was Mitsuki's favorite place. It was tranquil and calming and always seemed ot be the brightest room in the house. His parent's individual scents on the sheets and air-tight sealed in their closet was a cocktail of something sweet and tangy with a hint of vanilla. But he loved the bathroom and the little 'powder room' just off of it; where his fondest memories were. His father had gone through painstaking lengths to ensure that the bedroom fit everything his mother could want in one place and he had gone above and beyond her expectations.

In the glorious en suite bathroom, to the right past a large stand-up shower situated in the corner, was a room about 4' x 5' and held no plumbing or bathroom within; but it was still Mitsuki's favorite place. It was his Mother's make-up room. Against the wall was a large vanity with a elegant vanity mirror and flanking it on the left and right were shelves of ebony held up with dark, metallic purple brackets. Upon them and strategically placed with an interior designer's eye for organization, were shoes and purses and accessories and everything that a woman would have in her arsenal to seduce a man. There was an elegant bench chair that matched the sleek ebony of the vanity and padded with a light purple cushion that was fluffy but firm; a place where Mitsuki would sit as a child and watch contently as his mother applied make-up for hours sometimes; practicing new eyeshadows and techniques until she mastered them and he just watched in awe. Now, it held two arm chairs, stuffed into the odd little corners, where Mitsuki and his father would sit to watch the same show when he became too big to sit on the bench with his mother.

In her absence, Mitsuki would come in and dust everything and memorized every piece of make-up and every glittery hair piece. He had even began to take care of the make-up products in her wake, learning what was expired and what was not and rotated the items accordingly. Now, all the see-through acrylic organizers that held her brushed and various facial products were fresh. Old tubes of mascara discarded for new ones of the same formula. Old lipsticks tossed out and matched with the exact same shades. Eyeshadows checked for firmness and replaced should they fail to meet Mitsuki's high expectations. He had even gone so far as to tighten shelf-supporting screws and discipline loose bolts in the vanity. "Hm." She purred as she looked around and reached up to a platform boot of black lace and chunky heel- and moved it ever-so-slightly. "Was this you, Mitsuki?" She asked and looked at her son who nodded a bit; maintaining his missing-mother's closet something he probably shouldn't admit to as a young man. But her warm and appreciative smile seemed to wipe out social standards from his mind, "You did a magnificent job, thank you." She brushed her palms over the vanity's surface as she lowered herself gracefully into the bench seat, "Well, I'll place myself in your hands then, Mikki. Please take care of me." Her son smiled and left her in the room, going into the bathroom and pulling her hair brush off the counter. Excitement creating adrenaline in his veins.

When his father could get away from his work and experiments long enough to appreciate his family and his wife, he too was fond of doing his mother's hair. And when Mitsuki was bold enough to ask, even his father didn't object to the occasional make-over; his mother's careful hands mastering the art of applying her own make-up to others better than she could upon her own blemish-free and pockmark-free features. Doing so with such deadly accuracy and Mitsuki doing his father's hair with such deftness, it made it difficult to tell that he was even a man afterwards. Though, Mitsuki was still informed that his father's feminine looks made that normally hard to tell, but he didn't see it. Now it was Mitsuki's turn and he was ready.

Even if time was short, Mitsuki had practiced on his father for a few months straight when she first vanished. The smell of her favorite perfume lingering in the air and all of her accessories around made it easier for him to adjust; and his Father supported him. Now, she was here and he could use everything he had practiced and learned… but… where to start?

He touched her hair and began to brush it, revealing in it's softness and quickly finished brushing it before glancing at the hair straightener that was still warming up. "Anything I can help with, Mikki?" She asked and he glanced at the clock to see how much time he had before putting his fingers together in a seal; summoning a shadow clone.

"No, we got it." Mitsuki assured and she smiled, "Mom, turn this way so I can do your make-up." She complied whole-heartedly and stayed still and silent for her son as he worked on her face while his clone worked on her hair. "So, um, do you think we can start talking about stuff now?" Mitsuki ventured as he finished the thin layer of makeup primer before starting to apply her foundation- pausing for her answer,

"Ok." His mother responded and he smiled and kept working on her foundation,

"So… Dad said that when he met you, you were dating Itachi Uchiha, and that he died. Did you date Dad after that?" Mitsuki asked as his clone straightened her hair to perfection, and Mitsuki set her foundation brush aside and picked up a buffer sponge as she looked at him,

"No. When Itachi passed away, after a month or so, I started dating someone else. And while I was dating someone else, I met you father again a year later." His mother answered honestly; said male overhearing it as he entered the room with another dress in his hands and slowly crept over to stand at the wall just out of the bathroom and eye-shot. But not earshot.

"So- Did you cheat on the other guy?" Mitsuki asked as he finished buffing her foundation out into poreless perfection before setting it beside the used brush. "The one you were dating when you met dad?"

"Technically no." His mother said and puzzled her son, "He died too, not too long after I met your father, but when I was done grieving, that's when your father and I started dating." Her words were clear and honest, if not a bit sad.

"If Dad hurt you so much then why do you stay?" Mitsuki finally asked and his mother parted her lips as he outlined them with a lip pencil. When he finished coloring them in, and picked the matching lipstick, her answer was just as clear.

"Your father and I made a promise; and even if he forgets it, I don't because it was very important to me. Over time, your father also became very important to me, and then we had you." She stopped to let him finish her lipstick before he reached to the vanity and set down the brushes when he was done using them, "Mitsuki." He looked at her as her steel-blue eyes met his,

"The lives we lead, the paths we chose to walk down, and the decisions that we make are just that; Ours. Sometimes, the roads we take will not be easy; sometimes, they come with ridicule and sometimes they come with praise. Nothing we do will be easy." His mother told him serious, not breaking eye contact. "What I'm trying to say is that yes; maybe your father wasn't the nicest to me. Yes; my path was very difficult to travel, but when I look at you, I know that it was all worth it." Mitsuki beamed happily, "Sometimes, he has difficulty showing it, but your father feels the same way as I do- Right, Orochimaru?" Mitsuki blinked and looked over, his Father walking into the bathroom and to the threshold of the small room.

"Mhm." He quietly agreed, walking into the room as she looked up at him, "You did a wonderful job, Mitsuki." His Father praised and Mitsuki grinned happily as his mother smiled, standing up to kiss him on the head before Mitsuki quickly pulled away,

"No!" Mitsuki said loudly and abruptly and his parents stepped back at the surprising outburst from their normally quiet son, before he sheepishly added on, "It hasn't dried yet." His mother blinked then looked in the mirror and quietly confirmed the fact for herself before smiling at Orochimaru. His father held the dress up to his mother and looked it over for any problems as his mother grinned excitedly,

"Shouldn't you go on ahead and spend time with your new teammates? Get acquainted?" Mitsuki nodded, "Do you want us to sit in front?" His mother asked while his father handed the dress to her and she took it,

"Yes- uh, no, sit in the middle!" Mitsuki said, slipping past his parents with a polite but quiet 'excuse me' before waving to them and announcing he was leaving. His mother waved and smiled as his father just watched him leave and they both waited until they heard the front door shut downstairs before looking at each other. Awkwardly in very close proximity and he just- stared at her in a sort of dazed and quiet awe. Midori looked away bashfully and moved some hair behind her ear, "...Quit staring, you're making this weird."

"Hm?" Orochimaru purred and tried to meet her eyes but she looked up at the ceiling, "I'm not staring. Just observing that even with the time difference, the fact that you're beautiful with and without make up hasn't changed." She glanced at him, "I've only had a few paintings in your absence, but they're not as vivid as the real thing (or digital pictures)." Midori turned her gaze to the dress, "I'll help with your zipper-"

"No, you won't." Midori said firmly as he grinned, "G- Just go change in the closet and I'll change here." He grinned in a way that spoke 'I've seen you already' and she countered the grin, "I'll be damned if we're late to his graduation." Orochimaru turned and walked off,

"Yes, dear. I'll get the camera too-" "NO!" Midori snapped loudly as he chuckled to himself,"-For Mitsuki." "Oh, ok."

* * *

A/N: Read the one-shot chapter with Mitsuki and Orochimaru AS SOON AS IT CAME OUT, and hoped that it would go along with the story line I have for his mother. Fortunately, it does and even canonizes a couple things that will happen in the next chapter or two, thank god. You guys have been waiting a while and weeding through this 'filler', but hang tight- questions will be answered the next couple chapters.

Also, after researching, the kanji for 'mi' for Midori's name has very many meanings (including 'moon', 'sign of the snakke or serpent', and 'sixth sign of chinese zodiac') and the kanji for 'dori' has 'to take pictures, take up', I'll say her name will translate to 'To take pictures of the moon'.


	11. My Graduation Night

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 9- My Graduation Night

The day he had graduated from the academy brought with it the feel of breathable cloth and the weight of a metal plate that showed the symbol of the Hidden Leaf Village; to showcase his loyalties to team and country.

The speech had been long and agonizing to listen to for most but not him.

It spoke of honor and respect and duty; and his parents were sitting right in the middle rows, proudly beaming and listening as much as he was.

However, they didn't join him afterwards.

When the parents vacated the seats that flanked the ceremony, most to regroup with their children, Mitsuki caught his mother's eyes. Then he watched her lips as she said something, gave him a supportive smile, and vanished into the crowd with his father.

'See you at home around 4.'

Another chance for him to kindle a better relationship with his teammates that Mitsuki happily took up. And Boruto and Sarada were happy to welcome him into the fold and introduce him to their parents. Something he was more than happy to relay to his own after a few hours of hanging out with the mixed families and returning to his own home. His Father in the kitchen chopping something up and looking at him as he slipped into his house shoes. "You're late." He said with a touch of surprise and Mitsuki looked at the clock before realizing that it was 5pm instead of 4pm. "Go on." His father said and gestured to the staircase, "Your mom's been waiting." Mitsuki hurried up the stairs as his father continued whatever he was doing as his mother met him at the top of the staircase.

Orochimaru smiled as he listened to his son get yelled at about his tardiness for something so important and continued shopping up vegetables for his own meal and cooking for himself for the next hour or so. A diversion tactic so he didn't have to see the mother of his child as she came down the stairs after an hour and a half, "I'm going ahead first, Oro." She voiced and he nodded, "Mikki is NOT wearing his headband tot he festival, so don't let him leave if he's got it on."

"He just got it, let him wear it." Orochimaru sighed and she firmly emphasised that their son would leave it at home so it didn't get lost. "Why are you leaving right now?"

"Mikki didn't say anything about the tickets to get into the festival, so I have to hurry ot the village and get them" His son's mother voiced as the clacking of wooden sandals on the stone near the door reached Orochimaru's ears. "No tickets, no festival- _**NO HEADBAND.**_ " With that, she shut the door behind herself and he finally looked behind him and looked around for her as his son came down the stairs. His father smiled at his appearance as he wore a more refined kimono of dark blue with silver etchings on it.

"Did you see mom? I picked out her kimono at the shop." Mitsuki asked and his father chuckled, pausing in his cooking and going over ot his son to fix his slightly-loose obi.

"The last time I looked at your mother in a kimono, I almost got killed." His father said and even though the words were serious, his joking smirk was not. Confusing his son on whether it was a lie or the truth even as his father handed him a small portable camera, "Take pictures if you can- just no flash and be sneaky about it." Mitsuki obediently took the camera and looked up at his father,

"Why do I have to be sneaky?" Mitsuki asked and his father stood up and slipped his hands into his sleeves,

"Because your mom is deathly afraid of cameras." His father replied simply, "If she's distracted, it's easier to take a picture of her." Mitsuki blinked in shock and his father took the opportunity to take his son's headband from around his forehead and set it on the table, "No headbands tonight." As his son opened his mouth to protest while his father walked back towards the stove, his father added on sternly, "Punishment for not informing us about the festival tickets."

"That's not fair, they only told me today." Mitsuki protested and his father looked at him, "I just got it today, can't I wear it?" His father absently stirred the contents of the pot on the stove as he looked at his son,

"What did your mother tell you?" His father questioned and Mitsuki looked down at the camera,

"...That she doesn't want me to wear it because I might lose it, and I'll have everyday to wear it after the festival." Mitsuki said sulkily and his father smirked because they both knew that his mother has a very valid point. "...I just want her to see me with it before she leaves…"

"Your mother isn't going to leave, Mitsuki." His father voiced and glanced back to see his son perk up, "I do have a request, however, before you go and enjoy the festival." Mitsuki blinked,

"What is it?" Mitsuki asked and his father turned to him,

"Do not let guys who aren't wearing a wedding ring, talk to your mother." His father stated very firmly and seriously, "And if she starts- or anything happens to you two- call me." Mitsuki nodded,

"No guys around mom. Bye dad!" Mitsuki called and his father glanced at the table to see the headband there before turning back to his dinner for the night and sighing. Perhaps he should have sent a clone to go and watch them.

Mitsuki arrived just as the sun was setting and looked around for his mother through the crowds of people, before remembering to hide the camera as he continued to look around for his mother. It actually made a lot of sense now that he thought about it. He had only ever seen the paintings his father had done of his mother and his mother, herself.

' _If she's distracted, I'll be easier to get a picture of her.'_

His first 'mission' as an official genin- it didn't seem like a hard task. As he looked at the bright and colorful lanterns illuminating the closed-off streets where the festival resided, he happily noted that it was bright enough to not use the flash either. "Hey, Mitsuki!" He looked over and saw Sarada, his friend and new teammate, waving and walking over to him in a red kimono, "Nice kimono! Where are your parents?"

"Thanks." Mitsuki grinned, "My Dad's at home, but my Mom's here. I'm having trouble finding her." As he said that he pulled otut eh camera again and turned off the flash while his teammate looked at it,

"Hey, that's the new optima pix with the 10.0 zoom, right?" She asked excitedly and Mitsuki looked up at her, "I don't even think they've released those yet- how'd you get one?"

"My dad gave it to me to take pictures of my mom, because she doesn't like her picture taken." Mitsuki answered and handed the camera to Sarada, "I was turning off the flash because it's pretty bright here." She tapped a few things and handed it back with the task already taken care of, "Thanks." He walked forward and she fell in step with him, "Are your parents here?"

"Yeah, I think they're outside here too." Sarada answered, "What's your mom look like?"

"Really pretty with silver hair." He answered simply and the two looked around before Sarada pointed a woman out, "That one over there?" Mitsuki grinned and grabbed Sarada's hand, who blushed, as the boy pulled her through the crowds in a firm bee-line to the woman who smiled as they stopped in front of her,

"Mom, you got the tickets, right?" Mitsuki asked, his teammate there and his mother smiled and nodded, flashing the tickets, "Oh, mom, this is Sarada Uchiha." His mother smiled and tilted her head slightly,

"Hello there. May I call you Sarada?" She asked, and the Uchiha girl nodded, "I'm Midori- or Miss Noir, whatever you prefer. Thank you for taking care of my son." Sarada nodded vigorously,

"Ye-Yes. Mitsuki…" Sarada murmured and tried to pull her hand away and he looked at her,

"We should stick together and help her find her parents, Mom. They're here too." Mtisuki said and his mother nodded in her agreement, her ornate hair put up in an elegant bun to keep it from falling on the pale cream fur ruff of her kimono's collar. A set up her son had picked out himself and she was more than proud to flaunt her son's tastes. Mitsuki pulled sarada behind him again and weaved in and out with his mother and teammate for another half hour before reuniting them and the two walking off to enjoy the festival on their own. However, as soon as Sarada was out of earshot, his Mother save him a playful smile, "What?"

"Holding hands with a teammate, hm?" She asked teasingly and he blushed, "She's pretty cute, Mikki, she'll grow to be a beautiful woman one day." Her son's face reddened even more as she his her mouth behind a paper fan that matched her kimono and chuckled behind it.

"No, it's not-! Mom, she could have gotten lost in the crowd and I didn't…" Mitsuki stammered and his mother smiled,

"Mikki, it's OK, I'm not scolding you. It's good to see you noticing girls, you're about that age." His mother reassured, the dangling hair pins he had put in her elaborate hair tinkling sweetly in the brisk moments of mid-spring breeze. "It's good to find people who are important to you; they will bring out the best in you." Mitsuki smiled and they stopped at a stall to get some mochi before continuing on,

Exploring the festival was interesting and when his mother wasn't paying attention he was quick to take pictures and stealthily hide the camera again before he started questioning her again, "So, can we talk more about your past?" He inquired and she grinned,

"I don't see why not. What do you want to know?" His mother asked as they stopped at a cotton candy stand and waited for two fluffy sticks of spun sugar,

"Do I have grandparents?" Mitsuki asked and she smiled, "Dad says his died when he was young but he said yours don't like him much; what are they like? Are they nice? Do you talk to them?" He quizzed excitedly as his mother laughed and paid for their cotton candy before taking the two offered sticks of fluff and handing one to her son who took it,

"Why the rush, kid?" She smiled as they walked away from the stand and moved to one of the seating areas off to the side of the stalls that lined the closed-off streets, in a small park-like area. When they sat down to nibble on their chosen sweets, she added, "I'm not going to leave, so we have all the time in the world." Mitsuki beamed happily that his mother was answering the question he'd been feverishly asking his father since she had returned. "I didn't know my birth parents personally; they died soon after I was born but left me with a couple who raised me. My 'mom', the one who raised me, was a really nice woman but her husband died when I was young too. She remarried and the man she married was very…" She looked at her son as she tried to decide whether or not it was alright to reveal the degree of her child her that she had, but be decided against it, "...'Strict'. However, when your dad takes pictures of you, I send them a copy, so they know about you." Mitsuki sat there, drinking it all in as his mother took her time to eat her cotton candy and let it seep in,

That the foundation of his parent's being together could have been that they were both, at one point, completely alone in the world. That it could have been the poured concrete that even made Mitsuki possible. It was mind-numbing.

"You're a ninja too, right mom?" Mitsuki asked eagerly and she nodded, "Does Dad know?"

"...Well… Yes… and No." His Mother answered with rare vagueness and Mitsuki was puzzled, "My jutsus take a while to work, so your Dad isn't really interested in them." She looked down at her cotton candy and had a few bites, and in a fleeting moment Mitsuki looked past her shoulder- and saw Boruto with his parents and his little sister. Her son stood up and pulled her to her feet, "Mikki?"

"Mom, my friend Boruto and his family are here, you can meet them!" Mitsuki said excitedly and she shared his enthusiasm as he pulled her closer towards the family that had stopped ot get something to munch on, "Wait here, I'll go get them." Mitsuki said and she smiled, nodding affirmatively and let her son run off to greet his friend.

Behind her, amongst the crowd of familiar faces of villagers and visiting relatives; were also the faces of enemies and Midori put a hand to her head. She looked behind her at the creeping sensation of being watched and when no one stood out, she brushed it off and continued to wait for her son patiently. It was fun being out of the house and she couldn't really remember the last time that Orochimaru had gone out of his way to take her out somewhere. There had been today but that was different. It wasn't a date it was just-

' _We have to stop and get you some medicine and I need more supplies. I would appreciate it if you'd help carry some of it.'_ It was… Orochimaru being Orochimaru. Putting his experiments first, as always.

Before she could even begin to question how he had left his work behind long enough to actually help her conceive their son, a familiar voice called out to her from her left and she turned, "Oh-" Purple face-paint marking the man's face but she smiled, "Kankuro, right?" The man grinned sheepishly and stopped in front of her, rubbing the back of his neck,

"Yep! It's really nice to see you, Ms. Noir… been a while, eh?" The man, Kankuro, grinned, "Um, like 5 years… I think..."

However, as the two talked and Mitsuki came back with his friend and his family in tow, the first thing he noticed as the two casually conversed was the man lifting his right hand up to the back of his neck. And how there wasn't a ring on any of the digits. As they drew closer, he heard the male asking her for something before he blurted out, "Hey mom, I found Boruto!" The two adults looking over at him and his mother politely excused herself from the male before smiling at her son,

"That's great." His mother said and approached Boruto and his family- mainly his parents. "Hello, I'm Midori Noir." She bowed slightly, "Thank you for looking after my son." Boruto's parents smiled and returned the sentiment and they began getting wrapped up in light conversation- as Mitsuki looked at Kankuro who hung back a bit. "Hey, who's the old man creepin' on your mom?" Boruto whispered to him and Mitsuki glanced at him before nodding towards Kankuro, and the two boys walked over ot the adult through the guise of the crowd.

"Hey." Mitsuki voiced and Kankuro looked at the boy as he and Boruto stopped in front of him, trying to wrack his brain for something intimidating that his Father would say. However, over all the years and all the stories, Mitsuki hadn't heard one where Orochimaru had actually had to go out of his way to speak more than 'she's with me'. How was Mitsuki supposed to convey the same things his father could with a glance? His mother would probably tell him to believe in his own abilities but… "Don't get friendly with her." The adult narrowed his eyes a bit at Mitsuki but Boruto piped in, "Don't be leering at my friend's mom, Uncle."

"I wasn't leering." Kankuro spoke up as Midori glanced over at the boys confronting the adult and watched the scene unfold while still conversing half-way with Boruto's parents before they paused to watch the scene unfold. "Your mom, huh? Can't believe she has a son- what are you, like 10?"

"I got a Dad too, maybe I should call him- OH you might not know him, but-" Mitsuki pulled down his eyelid a bit and pointed to his eye as Kankuro stiffed from the following line, "He has bright yellow eyes like I do."

"Uh- N-No, that's cool." Kankuro mumbled, "I'll just, um- talk to her some other-" "No you won't, Uncle." Boruto interjected as he put his hands behind his heads, "Take a hint! No talking, no looking, ya know? Beat it, you're ruining a really nice festival!" Kankuro nervously glanced back at Mitsuki who glared at him before retreating into the crowd, leaving Mitsuki and Boruto to high-five.

"Mitsuki." His mother's stern voice came from behind them and he turned around, "What was that all about?" She questioned firmly and her son nervously looked away, "Once i'm done with his parents- then we're going to talk about what just happened, Mitsuki." His Mother informed him and went back to Boruto's parents as Mitsuki frowned a bit, feeling a bit guilty for his bad behavior; however, his Father did say 'no ring, no talking', so he hadn't disobeyed.

"Yo, Mitsuki, your mom's pretty hot for an old lady." Boruto said and Mitsuki glared at him too, "Just kidding!" "Boruto, come on." His own dad called and Boruto clapped Mitsuki on the shoulder before walking off with his father as Mitsuki's mother waved them off and rejoined her own son.

"Are you mad?" Mitsuki asked quietly and she looked at him and he sheepishly glanced up at her to see how anger she was. But she was smiling.

"I am a bit unnerved, but I'm not mad, Mikki." She replied and patted him on the head, "We've been here quite a bit; let's go home." His mother said as she sighed, "I'll make something for us when we get home, snacks aren't dinner." Mitsuki followed his mother happily and vocalized his agreeance, telling his friends he'd see them later on their way out as his mother continued towards the Village gates and out of them. "I had a good time, how about you?" Mitsuki smiled,

"I had a really good time too!" And he had gotten a few good pictures while his mother wasn't looking, thankfully. Then it happened.

It began with his Mother pulling Mitsuki into herself just a fraction of a second before several black-cloaked figures landed in a ring around them, "Midori Noir." One of them vocalized and she tensed and gently squeezed her son's shoulder, "You are to come with us."

"Sorry, my husband doesn't like me wandering." His Mother said and one of them approached her and she defensively moved closer to Mitsuki who gripped her kimono.

"You need to come with us, and you will do so." The singular male said, the others producing kunai, "Come quietly, Midori Noir." His Mother smirked,

"Sorry. 'Quietly' isn't in my vocabulary."


	12. Clashing of Tides- Chpt 3

A/N: Kishimoto ain't the only one with fillers, ya'll. While I work on the next chapter, let this tide you over for a bit. (puns ftw)

* * *

Side Story- Clashing of Tides

Chapter 3- Our First Mission

Orochimaru had woken up moderately well if not a bit groggy; a problem remedied by a long, hot shower to help clear his mind. As he wiped the steam from the bathroom mirror, he looked at himself; taking a good long couple of minutes to do so. He was pursuing another man's woman; she should see what he saw, not what he knew.

He knew he was an extremely intelligent ninja, one of the best, talented in every aspect of jutsu `there was to master and had mastered even ones specifically for other clans. Including forbidden ones. But what she probably saw, was a ninja with enough qualities to get into the Akatsuki, with dark hair and unnaturally pale skin. Not to mention his eyes.

Orochimaru left the bathroom and looked down at the paperwork from before the nap he had taken; stuff to turn into her. He hadn't really bothered with women; the Redlight District was always open and somewhat welcoming, but now he wasn't so sure. His mind had always been muddied with studies and theories and observations; never with whether or not he should put his hair up or down to make a better impression. It was new to him and a bit difficult for him to handle even if he had always had a fondness for challenges.

After another long moment and walking around the confines of his room in a pair of pants amid his own thoughts, he pulled a shirt out of his closet and tugged on over his head. Then headed out of his room to see if there were some remnants of a missed meal outside in the kitchen.

However, instead, he found Midori, Kakuzu, and a rare appearance from their Leader, Pein. "- to this organization that this be done, and you know it." Came Pein's voice as he and Kakuzu sat opposite of Midori who sat at the table. She seemed to have been caught off-guard by whatever they were talking to her about, as evidence of a half-eaten plate of food that sat in front of her. Kakuzu took this opportunity to pipe in as Orochimaru went straight to the kitchen and pulled down a plate when he noticed there was indeed more food on the stove. Still warm from being cooked.

"She is an asset and a trustworthy one." Kakuzu voiced and took a drink of his coffee as Pein turned his attention to him, "If she was anything else, I would report it." The nin added as he set his mug down and fixed his paper.

"I need more proof." Pein voiced and must have noticed Orochimaru trying to keep out of it- "Orochimaru." Or just didn't notice. The Sannin turned his attention to their leader as Midori took the distraction to eat, "Have you been on a mission with Midori?"

"No." Orochimaru answered and she tried to eat a little faster, "I am interested though."

"It's settled then. Orochimaru will go with you." Pein said simply and rose from the table, "Kakuzu." Kakuzu looked up at Pein warily, "Midori." She glanced his way. "Please make sure that this time, you do not overlook it again." They both stayed silent as Pein left and Midori continued her meal, waiting until the sound of the elevator doors closing could be heard, before Midori looked at Kakuzu for answers,

"What a pain in the ass." Kakuzu grumbled as he put his newspaper down, "We'll be leaving in 10 minutes." The ninja told Orochimaru who tilted his head a bit in curiosity as Midori stood up and attempted to pick up the plate, "Leave it." Kakuzu ordered and Midori did so, walking off to Itachi's room and shut the door behind her as Kakuzu turned his attention to Orochimaru, "I will explain later."

And he did. As Midori silently walked with them towards their destination, practically swimming in her Akatsuki cloak.

Since Midori had arrived, she and Kakuzu had been paired on several vital espionage missions; mostly at Teahouses. Where gossip was easily collected from drunk nin and men alike. Kakuzu supplied 'the women' and would slip Midori among them, and then take photography of everything and everyone Midori met with, and occasionally kill a high-bounty or two that happened to be drawn into her room. Unfortunately, during all the times these pictures were taken- "Here." Kakuzu said gruffly and set the box in front of Orochimaru when they had gotten to their rented Inn room, Midori already busy pulling out the futons from the closet.

And the sannin was more than eager to look through the photos to keep one of the female himself; but that was where the problem was. In all of the photos, other geisha blocked the silver-haired woman out and only made bits of her kimono visible. All of them. Every single one. It was impossible to tell that Midori was even there. It seemed the only actual photo of her, was the one in her folder at the headquarters, however- "That was Itachi." Midori admitted when prompted by Kakuzu.

"It's a simple-" Orochimaru started to say before Kakuzu groaned and held the camera remotely towards Midori- and the loud sound of glass cracking filled the air. The lens itself had shattered and Midori frowned. "I see." Midori sighed and pulled out her wallet before reluctantly handing Kakuzu a stack of cash and putting her wallet away.

"Another reason why she's a good partner; she pays for what she breaks." Kakuzu said as he stood up, "I'll go get another." Midori got up as well while Orochimaru watched as she started unbuttoning her cloak; having gotten a very strict order form their LEader ot wear it for this occurancd. "Don't forget the extra futon, woman." Kakuzu called to her as she took her cloak off and hung it up then reached up for the tight coil of a braided bun she had put her hair in before they left.

"Staying in the boys' room?" Orochimaru purred teasingly and she glanced back at him, "Aren't you bold." She smiled,

"I was under the impression that we were all adults here." Midori sweetly answered before walking out of the room and left him there a bit shocked.

She had bit back at him and he couldn't help but laugh a bit. He had always been quite fond of fiery women- whether or not Itachi was around at this moment was irrelevant. "Bit by bit, huh?" Orochimaru said to himself and smiled to himself, "Bit by bit." Then he glanced over at the cloak she had left behind and smirked.

Midori and Kakuzu returned to the room about the same time and Kakuzu produced three folders and set them on the table, each labeled with a different name; different targets for her to lure out. The female had deterred to the bathroom when Kakuzu called out, "Who's getting food, woman?"

"I paid last time." She called from the bathroom and Kakuzu grumbled something about how she didn't before she came out, "Fine, we'll janken for it." Midori said as she came out of the bathroom and Kakuzu sighed, the Sannin watching with a smirk as the two members played rock-paper-scissors to see who'd pay; and Kakuzu lost.

After a long discussion of what to get for dinner, ramen was decided and Orochimaru opted to stay in the room and give his order to Kakuzu as Midori shut herself in the bathroom for a shower. When she had finished, she came out drying her hair with a small but fluffy white towel and sat in front of the folders, then spread them out as Orochimaru watched, "Aren't you going to shower too?"

"I will." Orochimaru answered as she looked at each of the pictures the folders provided, "I'm surprised Itachi let you leave and do other missions with other men."

"He trusts me." Midori answered simply as she ran her fingers down the pages before flipping them and repeating the process. She did this for each page of the files and paused, staring at the back of one file then checked the backs of the other two files before frowning,

"Why, is something the matter?" Orochimaru inquired and she flipped the files around and slid them to Orochimaru,

"Pages seem to be missing." She said and continued to dry her long silvery hair, almost translucent in its wet state while he pretended to be interested in the files, "I will figure something out." Midori as she closed her eyes,

"It should be easy for you to lure them out for us to kill them, shouldn't it?" Orochimaru asked and she nodded,

"Yes, but personalities can't be pinpointed on paper properly." Midori said and pulled her hair to the side, touching her fingers somewhere to the back of her neck, "I should be fine though."

"So, Midori-Chan, what would you do if say, something happened to Itachi-kun?" Orochimaru asked and she blinked and looked up at him as Kakuzu came in and shut the door behind him, "Hypothetically speaking, of course." Kakuzu set the food down on the table,

"She'd marry me." Kakuzu interjected before she could say anything as he unpacked the bags and handed each person's order to them, Midori thanking him, "She would live a quiet life being a housewife and raising our 2 kids, in a large house somewhere near the ocean." Midori opened hers as he passed her a bottle of water and he cracked open a can of beer for himself,

"All hypothetical, of course?" Orochimaru asked as he hid his distain and Kakuzu's eyes met his,

"It's not hypothetical if it has already been determined." Kakuzu said as he took off his cloak and set it aside, removing his mask as Midori grabbed her chopsticks, "Right, Midori?" Midori said her blessing as she broke the chopsticks then smiled up at Kakuzu,

"You are correct, my future ex-husband." Midori said before helping herself to her food while the men ate theirs, "So, Orochimaru, do you participate in light conversation while you eat or no?" Orochimaru wanted to get noodles for his first selection of his own ramen, however he opted for the little fish cake instead as Kakuzu pushed another container towards the woman. With a 'thank you' she opened the container and shook out the contents into her bowl- steamed white rice- before stirring everything up and slipping her miso spoon into the bowl as well.

"I don't mind it." He answered and Kakuzu casually reached over and plucked out the fish cake from Midori's bowl as she paused what she was doing to allow him the chance to do so, before she continued eating her own meal, "Oh?" Orochimaru inquired with a smirk towards Kakuzu who glanced at him,

"She doesn't like fish cakes or-" Kakuzu said and skillfully stole the yolk out of a hard-boiled egg slice in her bowl, "Yolks." He said as he popped it in his mouth and Midori carried on with her meal as Orochimaru just stared at her; giving her a look that questioned why she was letting it happen in the first place.

"I've grown accustom to Kakuzu's habits." Midori answered simply and added more rice to her ramen. Orochimaru ate silently and watched underneath dark lashes as she contently ate spoonfuls of broth, noodles, and rice, before taking the dive and nudging his own bowl forward to lightly tap hers; just enough to get her attention. She looked up at him as she swallowed,

"May I try some rice too?" Orochimaru requested and Midori took the take-out container and shook some into his bowl then offered to do so for Kakuzu who paused to let her.

"If you let it sit for a bit, that's when it tastes better." Midori said simply and Kakuzu focused on his meal as she returned to hers, "Kakuzu, why did the Leader give me 3 targets?"

"Leader gave _us_ 3 targets." Kakuzu corrected before adding, "Perhaps because he thinks that, since there's 3 of us, we can all be decoys." Midori scoffed and kept eating and Kakuzu paused to take a swig of his beer, "Don't worry about the mess." She continued eating as Orochimaru sipped on his own drink, wondering if things were always so cordial between them.

He's have Itachi's body, and with it, could pretend to be Itachi and seduce the woman. It was a good plan that involved killing more birds with fewer stones but still… he could always get a jump start tonight. "There's only two futons, woman." Midori paused and looked behind them at the laid out futons before setting down her chopsticks across the rim of her bowl,

"I'll go get them now." She voiced and stood up, leaving the room to the two men and shut the door quietly behind herself.

"I'm a bit envious that you're on such good terms with Midori-Chan. It must be nice to have a woman do all your dirty work." Orochimaru said before he continued his meal and Kakuzu paused in his own meal,

"I'm going to tell you this once; don't get in her way." Kakuzu said firmly, "It is vital that all of her focus is on her mission instead of deflecting the unwanted attentions of another man." The nin stirred his ramen and scooped up a spoonful of the broth-thickened rice, as Orochimaru turned his attention to the door when Midori returned empty-handed. "You should have gone earlier." Kakuzu chided but she smiled and sat next too him and before her bowl of food again.

"What a shame, but I'm always open to sharing, Midori-Chan." Orochimaru offered and she picked up her chopsticks,

"That's very generous of you, Orochimaru, thank you." She smiled and continued on until she finished her meal, tossing out the take-out bowl, rice container and chopsticks, before picking up the files and her cloak, "I'll be back in a little bit, Kakuzu."

"Don't fall asleep, I won't come get you." Kakuzu told her bluntly before he helped himself to another sip of his beer and some more food as she left the room again. She came back just as Kakuzu was moving his futon towards the window and right after Orochimaru had left the shower, "You done?" Kakuzu inquired to which she smiled and nodded, "Then get to bed, I'm taking a shower." Orochimaru glanced as Midori as she tied her hair in a loose braid and stared out the window at the moon. It wasn't a full moon, but it would be in the next couple nights. Still, as the sound of the shower water running started, it gave Orochimaru the perfect opportunity.

"So, your file says that you and Itachi-kun are married." Orochimaru started as she opened up the files again and looked at them as she sat on top of Kakuzu's chosen futon and had pulled her cloak into her lap to use as a blanket. "How did you two meet?" She paused in her reading to try and remember,

"At school." She said vaguely before closing the folders as she decided to opt out of talking and setting them aside, "If you're staying up, could you please keep quiet? You're never going to find a wife if you keep acting like you are right now. Oh, tell Kakuzu to dim the lights when he gets out?" With that, she laid down in the futon and pulled it up to cover her eyes from the light as Orochimaru sat there.

What was that middle part again?

She had pulled the cloak over the futon's top and had already gotten comfortable on her side under the top cover as Orochimaru looked at her, confused. He waited a few long minutes before touching his fingers to the floor to check for the vibrations of her breathing and see if she was asleep. Right as he was about to get up is when Kakuzu came out of the bathroom amid clouds of steam, "Oi, woman." He called and when there was no response, he frowned, "She fell asleep first, huh?"

"It seems that way." Orochimaru said as his face into his hand, annoyed by another foiled attempt as the other male turned the lights off. "Calling it a night?"

"Do what you want." Kakuzu grumbled as he sat next to the futon and dried his hair with the towel he had brought with him, not bothering to put on a shirt as much as he bothered to put on pants. "But we both need to be up first in the morning." He tossed the towel aside carelessly and lifted up the cover of the futon before slipping in and getting comfortable as Orochimaru looked away.

What was this tight feeling he had in his chest?

He eventually decided to fall asleep on his own and woke up not too long after the two of them did; however, the two other nin were already busy and focusing on the mission at hand as Kakuzu applied the makeup that Midori needed to infiltrate the teahouse successfully. "Look down." She did do. "Look to the side." She did so. "Lift your head up a bit." She did it. "Tilt your head down." She did and Orochimaru watched as she silently obeyed the orders to a 't' that Kakuzu gave her. He watched as her beauty was painted over and dulled a bit to make her the geisha they needed her to be for the night; but she was still beautiful even then. Even when Kakuzu helped her get up, she still rose gracefully. Every strand of hair in perfect placement, red lips ready to deny food and beverage, steely blue-grey eyes never giving away true origin or lineage, and smile at the ready. "Turn around." Kakuzu instructed as Orochimaru got up and used the bathroom while the nin ensured her kimono was perfect. When Orochimaru had finished, Kakuzu was standing strong and supportive as he help her into her geta, "What do you do if something goes wrong?"

"Calmly leave and rendezvous later on." She answered and smiled, tilting her head to the side, "Or would you rather I wait for you?" Kakuzu's answer was to quickly thwart her cuteness,

"Save it for the Teahouse." Kakuzu said and she nodded, "No blood on the kimono." Midori smiled and Kakuzu opened the door for her and let her out first before the two men followed, Kakuzu having already taken on a disguise and a normal skin color to make his own role seem more believable and Orochimaru hadn't even bothered. What he had bothered to do, was grab Midori's akatsuki cloak and keep it with him until she needed it. Orochimaru was to lie and wait to collect the bounties as Kakuzu got their decoy into the Teahouse in the first place; an easy thing to do that the Sannin watched from afar as the friendlier women welcomes her into the ranks and the others shunned her. And when the clients started coming, Kakuzu returned to wait with him,

"Midori-Chan is so talented, she just blends right in." Orochimaru observed and Kakuzu grunted in affirmation, "So, how often do you do these missions?"

"Very. And I usually send her as the decoy anyways." Kakuzu said simply. After about an hour as the sun was setting, was when Midori stepped down into the courtyard where they hid in a large tree; followed by one of the men they were hunting.

"Midori-San, please-!" The man said and the two nin watched as she snapped open her fan and covered her face up to the bridge of her nose, "I'm sorry."

"Toya-dono, it is I who should apologize." She said and Kakuzu readied himself beside Orochimaru as she lowered her fan, her voice breaking sadly, "I cannot return your feelings; we geisha are meant only for the night, Toya-dono, no matter how much we wish for anything else-" The man took her arms insistently as she stared up at him, "To-Toya-dono, we mustn't!"

"Midori-San, it's ok- no one's here-" The man said and the ornaments in her elaborate hair tinkled softly as he pulled her closer, "You're so beautiful in the moonlight, Midori-San, I don't think I'll be able to help myself." Before he could so much as kiss her, she pulled away from his grasp and moved closer to the two nin lurking in the shadows; and the male chased after her. "Sweet Midori-San, where are you going?"

"Should we not be safe, Toya-dono?" Midori asked and pulled back, past the two nin and the man followed- before Kakuzu quickly acted. He locked the man in a sleeper hold and clapped a hand over his mouth, waiting until he went limp before easing him to the ground as Midori sighed in relief and lowered her guard. "Can you check and see if my ornaments are in place?" She asked and crouched down a bit for the nin to check and he grunted,

"Have you seen the other two?" Orochimaru questioned and she looked at him,

"Yes; they're in the southern banquet room but… it looks over a courtyard." Kakuzu groaned, "I'll be going." She said and closed her fan, returning to the Teahouse as Kakuzu covered up the body. If it looked onto a courtyard, it would be harder for the nin to kill the men, but easier to get the pictures they needed. Orochimaru went on ahead and quietly tracked where the kunoichi went and took up residence in another tree as she knelt outside of a banquet room and bowed before entering and sitting near the open wall. Maybe even with intent to try and help him get pictures, but also took a position near one of the targets and smiled sweetly at him as she spoke to him. Orochimaru tried to focus on the photos as the man slipped a hand around Midori's waist and she shifted just out of reach, eventually leaving the room entirely; and the target followed as she lead him right to where Kakuzu was lying in wait, before she left the man to the patchwork nin and returned to the room to collect the last target. Kakuzu joining with him after a while,

"My, Midori-Chan works quite fast." Orochimaru voiced and Kakuzu said nothing, "We only need one more at this rate-" The two then watched as Midori sat down next to the target and he turned his affections to another woman. "Oh my." And though Midori smiled and put on her best face as she offered to probably refill his cup, the target put a hand over the cup to deny the action. "How cold. Do you think the mission is a failure?" Orochimaru asked Kakuzu who kept watching,

"No, she's already got him." Kakuzu said and Orochimaru looked back. Midori leaned in and said something to the target and discreetly slipped something to him before getting up and excusing herself from the room and walking away, "Could you imagine if she wasn't on our side?"

Oh. Orochimaru could imagine that a bit too well.

"She's finished her end of the mission, let's go." Kakuzu said and Orochimaru blinked, looking around to see that she had lured the man back to the first courtyard and was standing there, waiting for them. The Sannin picked up the second target and left as Kakuzu picked up the other two, while Midori calmly walked out of the grounds of the Teahouse and back towards where they had agreed to meet.

"That last one had Orochimaru nervous." Kakuzu voiced as she met up with them and she looked at the sannin who had the target over his shoulder, "Oi, that last one is alive, right?"

"No." She answered honestly, Orochimaru's eyes widening a bit.

"Let's turn them in." Kakuzu said and went ahead as Midori started walking forward.

"How surprising that you killed a man, Midori-chan." ORochimaru remarked and she looked back at him,

"Not really. The file said that the bounty was bigger if we was dead; and the assignment wanted him dead." Midori said and continued walking, Orochimaru falling easily into step next to her,

"How's it feel, Midori-chan, to kill a man?" Orochimaru questioned and she looked up at the sky,

"Oh, well, after the first one, it gets kind of boring." The woman answered simply and set Orochimaru back a bit with her unexpected answer before sighing and putting a hand to the back of her neck, "Please go on ahead; I'm a little tired so I'm going to walk." When he questioned why she didn't just run with the two of them, her answer was clear and simple; "Kakuzu gets mad if I do anything but walk in this kimono; it's expensive and he doesn't want it ruined." Orochimaru thought about it, weighing whether or not he should go; and decided against it.

He could comment on how, even with that white makeup caked on her face, she was still beautiful. Maybe he could comment how she took her partner's thoughts and mood into consideration. It was hard to decide on one thing to try and make a good impression when he had already left a pretty bad one- "Orochimaru." He glanced at Midori when she said his name and she gave him a pouty look, "It's really rude to ignore someone when they're trying to talk to you." Damn it, there she went again, bit by bit. "Are your eyes natural like that or are they some sort of side effect from your experiments?"

"Natural." Orochimaru said and followed it up with, "Why, do they scare you, Midori-Chan?" Midori looked away,

"Not at all, they're pretty interesting." She answered honestly as she snapped open her fan and started to fan herself, "Kakuzu isn't going to be happy if he doesn't have all the bounty money in his hands, you know." Midori's steel-blue eyes flicked up to meet his own, "It would be better for both of us if he was in a good mood."

Orochimaru smirked, "That's very unfair of you to ask when you look like that, Midori-chan, and know I can't properly refuse." And with that, he left and she eventually met up with both of the men.

"You took your time, huh?" Kakuzu growled as Midori smiled, "Orochimaru, give her the cloak back when she gets out." As Kakuzu spoke to the other nin, Midori walked into the building that they had taken the bounties to as Kakuzu thumbed through the bills he had acquired, returning after a maybe 20 minutes with the elegant clothes neatly bundled and back in the casual clothes she wore under her cloak, "Oi-" Kakuzu started as Orochimaru handed her the cloak and they both looked at him, "Good job." He turned and walked off as she pulled the cloak on and buttoned it up, before running after the man and Orochimaru chuckled.

He had been hoping that getting to know her would make him realize how bad of a person she was; but bit by bit, he was falling deeper and deeper under her unconsiously released spell.


	13. My Family Matter

Mitsuki's Adventure

Chapter 10- My Family Matter

There wasn't a phone call. There was no fight. There wasn't so much as a peep or a text or an email. Nothing. Nothing at all. He had eaten and gone to bed, knowing that they'd come home. His wife would nag him about not eating anything nutritious and take it upon herself to cook something up for her and their son, then something for him since she was 'already in the kitchen'. Then wake him up to eat before they went back to bed.

But there had been nothing. And Orochimaru made his way to Konoha.

No used dishes in the drying rack. No new left overs. No food used. Their house shoes hadn't even been pulled out of the shoe cabinet. His son's bed was made and the left side of his own bed held hardly mussed sheets excluding his own sleeping. Something was wrong. They had been together for so long, he knew her patterns. Mitsuki had inherited his mother's penchant for routine; and this wasn't like either of them.

' _I really want to stay, and I want to work things out, if you'll let me.'_ That had been their conversation yesterday after they went to get medicine. And then she smiled at him, ' _I want to keep coming home to you and Mikki.'_

He stopped roughly between halfway to their home and Konoha, and knelt down to pick up something that had caught his eye before standing up. It was a red camera; similar to the one he had given his son for the festival. Orochimaru turned it on and noticed it still had about half of it's battery life before he started looking through the camera's photos. It held a variety of photos of the festival they had gone to and several actually had his wife vividly portrayed in them, if not distracted and smiling. Then a couple his son had taken with some of his friends. And then blurred photos.

But they weren't blurred photos of nothing. They were blurred photos of black-cloaked strangers attacking his wife.

Orochimaru looked around and saw something glitter in a tree trunk not too far from where he stood that he quickly went to inspect and scowled. In the trunk, lodged with some amount of force, was one of the ornamental hairpins that his son had put in his wife's hair the night before. The little gilded flowers at the end of it blowing with the wind like a chime that haunted him with the fact that, once more, he had failed to be there. The sound echoed through his mind and down to his very core.

Not only his wife, but his son now, were gone.

They had been on their way home.

Another 10 or 15 minutes and they would have _been_ home. Midori would have woken him up, nagged him as he sleepily listened, then filled their home with the warmth of a hot oven and the smell of freshly cooked food, and they would have gone to bed. They had been so close to home…

And when he found whoever did this, he wasn't going to be merciful. Even if his wife begged him.

* * *

"Mitsuki." He laid somewhere, stirring at his name, "Time to get up, Mikki." Mitsuki slowly opened his eyes and blinked away the haze of first-woken sleep. Then he abruptly sat up and looked around.

Mitsuki was in his bedroom, at home. Everything placed in their rightful spots accordingly. "Good morning, Mikki." He looked to his right where his mother sat on the bed and smiled at him.

"Mom?" He asked and she chuckled a bit, "This… How did we get home?"

"We didn't get home, Mikki. We got captured." His mother answered as she stood up and walked out of the room. Her son started to panic and tossed his bed sheets off of him and ran after her as she calmly walked away from him,

"We're dead? MOM!" Mitsuki yelled and she kept walking down the hallway of their home- but it seemed to stretch out farther and farther as she tried to walk towards a dark door. The door was sudden and unfamiliar to Mistuki but he continued to run after her. Then she stopped and turned half-way to him as Mitsuki stopped in front of her, "Mom-"

"You're not dead, Mikki." She answered calmly and he searched her face for answers. Her eyes were tired and the more he stared at her, the more tired she looked, "Mikki, I need you to go and get your dad. We're running pretty short on time." She said before she crouched down to meet his eye-level and Mitsuki swallowed.

"Ye-Yeah. What about you?" Mitsuki asked and she frowned a little bit,

"...I only have enough chakra to get you out of the genjutsu and out of where we're being kept, Mitsuki." His mother told him and panic flashed across his face before she ruffled his hair, "That's why it's important that you remember how to get back." She told him before pointing to the black door. "That's the exit for this genjutsu. Just go over and walk out."

"What's going to happen to you?" Mitsuki asked sadly, "Don't die-" She put a warm hand over his mouth and stared at him,

"Maybe one day, I will, but not today Mitsuki." She told him firmly, "You need to go and get your father and bring him back." His Mother moved her hand to cup his cheek, "Can you do that?" Mitsuki nodded affirmatively and she smiled, "Good. Let me show you the way." She said and leaned forward, kissing him on the forehead, "Go on now, Mikki."

"...I'm scared." Mitsuki whispered as his mother stood up, "I don't want to… leave and then you die."

"I'm scared too, Mitsuki." His mother answered with unabashed honesty and he stared up at her in awe, "But I know that I can't let it stop me from doing everything I can. So don't let your fear stop you." With renewed determination Mitsuki nodded and ran over to the black door. He touched the door handle and looked back at his mother who smiled reassuringly at him, "See you soon, kid." Mitsuki smiled and pushed the door open, letting out a blinding light that bathed and washed away everything behind him.

The next thing he knew, he was falling out of something cold and wet onto something hard and solid; like a floor. Mitsuki sat up and looked around to see that he was in some sort of strange room with three metal 'pod' like things- and the lid on one of them was slowly closing. Mitsuki got to his feet, slipping a bit on the strange green fluid all around, to find that the lid closed on a pod that held his mother. He tried to open it back up but with his depleted strength, it was impossible and he just stared at her. Her kimono ripped and tattered from the fight and some of her hair had fallen out of it's placement from the lack of ornamental pins to keep it in place. Once more, fear gripped him as the large tubed connected to the metal pods, which came from some even larger conductor in the ceiling, began to flood the pod with lime-green fluid.

' _Don't let your fear stop you.'_ Mitsuki stared at the pod with it's thick glass window one last time, before turning and running off.

* * *

-Konoha-

"Suigetsu?" The blonde-haired hokage asked suspiciously of the white-haired and sharp-toothed man in front of him, "What an unexpected surprise-"

"Is it really, when you have that one guy outside Lord Orochimaru's lab night and day?" Suigetsu asked before putting his hands up as the Seventh Hokage scowled, "Ah, b-but I'm not here for that. Did that guy tell you what's going on?"

"Only that Orochimaru actually left the area and he lost him." Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage of Konoha, answered, before Suigetsu filled in the blanks.

"Lord Orochimaru's son and wife are missing." Suigetsu said and Naruto and his assistant, Shikamaru Nara, blinked in surprise, "They didn't come home last night and he found a camera and a few of his wife's hair pins; so he's out looking for them."

"... how far out?" Naruto asked, "Is there an approximate time?"

"Yeah, his son took a couple photos of the guys. Time stamp's 11:01 pm last night." Suigetsu said and rubbed the back of his neck, "They were a little more than half-way home." Naruto lowered his head and Shikamaru looked down as well. "So, um, if you can help that'd be great. Like, they were here for his son's graduation festival and they were supposed to come right home."

"Of course." Naruto said, "Do you have a description of the two?" Suigetsu moved over to the desk and set two pictures down. A digital photo of Mitsuki and a hand-sketch of his mother, Midori. "...Why isn't this a digital photo?" Naruto murmured and Suigetsu nodded, "When did Orochimaru realize they were missing?"

"Yeah, the Lady is really afraid of cameras." Suigetsu answered, "She's got long silvery hair and she was wearing a kimono that was black and silver for the festival; so was Mitsuki." The ninja tried to think about what his master had told him, "Lord Orochimaru realized it this morning and went out to look, then came back to send me out."

"Any fights recently?" Shikamaru asked the ninja who looked at him,

"Well, no. Far's I know, Lord Orochimaru and the Lady were working things out-" To the confused and quizzical looks of the other two males, Suigetsu explained, "It's… real complicated."

"So what happened between yesterday night and this morning?" Shikamaru asked and Suigetsu pulled out a paper from inside his shirt and opened it up,

"The miss went on ahead to the festival and Lord Orochimaru had a few words with his son before he ate dinner and went to bed." Suigetsu abbreviated and handed the paper willingly over to Shikamaru to read, "The miss usually wakes him up when she gets home, but she didn't." Naruto looked puzzled again and Suigetsu frowned, "It's what she does."

"Hm." Naruto murmured and looked at Mitsuki's photo before blinking in realization, "Oh, yeah I did see them at the festival last night…" Naruto paused then his face soured, "So… is she… his mom?"

"The miss?" Suigestu asked, "Yeah, she's Mitsuki's mom." Shikamaru and Naruto shared a look that obviously questioned why. Just- 'why'. Seeing the look, Suigetsu voiced, "We usually wonder that too but just try not to think about it."

"Why are you being so helpful?" Shikamaru asked after handing the paper to Naruto; it contained the times of which everything happened to the best of Orochimaru's knowledge, and his events in the hours his wife and son weren't home, and it was signed by him to prove authenticity. According to the paper, they had already been gone a little more than 12 hours.

"Lord Orochimaru told me to be as cooperative as possible to help find them." Suigetsu answered bluntly, "...It's making the rest of us uneasy too, ya know? She's been around for so long, we kind grew attached to her." Before Naruto could say anything regarding whether or not they'd help someone who had already done so much physical and psychological damage to Konoha, the phone range on his desk and Naruto answered it.

"Hello? Boruto? Slow down, slow down-" Naruto blinked. "OK, stay there." He hung up and looked at Suigetsu,

"Is there anyway to get ahold of Orochimaru?" Naruto asked him and Suigetsu nodded, "His son just showed up at my house." Suigetsu quickly pulled out a small flip phone from his pants pocket and dialed up his master before the three headed over to the Seventh's house to check on Mitsuki.

"Mitsuki." Suigetsu said and the boy looked up from the dinner table where Hinata, the Seventh Hokage's wife, had sat him, his friend Boruto sitting across from him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, but Mom got hurt really bad." Mitsuki said and Boruto stood up as his father came in,

"Mitsuki, what happened?" Naruto questioned and Mitsuki collected himself,

"Mom and I went to the festival together last night." Mitsuki started, "It was really late when we left, so we headed home- but the house isn't really close to Konoha." He put a hand to his head as he tried to keep his thoughts in tact. "We were almost home and then these people showed up, and they told mom to go with them but she-" Mitsuki looked up, his father in the doorway of the room, looking in, "Dad, I think she's hurt really bad." Naruto held up a hand as Orochimaru walked closer to the table, excusing himself to Naruto and Hinata for the intrusion.

"Mitsuki, we need to know what happened or we can't properly help your mom; you understand, right?" Naruto explained and the child nodded then picked up where he left off,

"Mom started fighting the guys and pushed me out of the way but- there was 6 of them and only one of Mom. I tried to distract them by turning on the flash on the camera because it was so dark out. And it worked for a bit then-" Mitsuki took a deep breath and continued, "I blacked out and woke up- somewhere. Mom got me out but… but she's still there. When I realized where I was, Konoha was closer than our house so I came here."

"How did you get out?" His father questioned before anyone else could and Mitsuki tried to think about it,

"I… I don't know. Mom put a genjutsu on me so we could talk- and told me she'd show me the way out and kissed me on the forehead, and when I left the genjutsu, I was in this really dark place and knew the way." Mitsuki answered, "I think… I think it's where she was last time." His father's eyes darkened before his father gestured him over,

"Come, Mitsuki, let's go." He said simply, "Thank you for watching after my son, Hinata-san." Orochimaru said and Mitsuki got up and moved towards his father, "Thank you for your help, Lord Seventh, but I believe from here on, it is a family matter." Mitsuki looked up at his Father; at a cross between nervous and scared, before Mitsuki started leading him towards the area he had just came from.

After maybe a 15 minute-run, they stopped just before a cave that his son quickly entered, leading his father to a large pool of water before he stopped and Orochimaru landed near his son, "Mitsuki?" His father questioned and Mitsuki looked at him.

"Are you mad?" Mitsuki asked, "That I didn't protect mom? Or because we didn't come home?" Orochimaru frowned,

"Of course I'm not mad at you, Mitsuki." Orochimaru said and Mitsuki stared up at him, "You and your mom were ambushed; it can't be helped. Are you hurt?" He asked and Mitsuki shook his head, "I am mad, but not at you and certainly not your mother. Let's go bring her home, alright?" Mitsuki nodded with determination, "Go ahead and lead the way, Mitsuki."

With a deep breath, Mitsuki jumped into the water and his father followed suit without a second thought.


	14. Clashing of Tides- Chpt 4

A/N: This one is longer because I wanted to get knowledge and lore of an ability of Midori's into play before the next chapter is released; but it came out really long. Sorry guys. And if some of it doesn't make sense, know it's because it used to be 4000+ words and i had to take some stuff out rather- messily.

* * *

Clashing of Tides

Chapter 4- Moonlight on the Ice

"I see your mission was a success; however, you reported that Midori had a kill during it?" Their Leader asked as he looked over the developed photos that were scattered on the desk in front of him. The silver-haired woman vividly showcased in them (for once). Oh, what Orochimaru wouldn't have given to have those pictures. Thankfully, he had the negatives- "I'll need the negatives too, Orochimaru, as they're impertinent to the extension report." Fucking damn it. However, the Sannin silently complied and handed the negatives and the camera over to their Leader. "So that's 184, right Kakuzu?"

"Yes." Kakuzu confirmed gruffly as Midori stood between the two men silently. The Leader nodded,

"You are all dismissed; Midori, I'd like an extended version of whatever reports these two turn-in to you from your perspective, and why you feel it was necessary to out of your way and kill a target while in the middle of being a decoy." Pein added on as he sat down and waved them off dismissively and the three left the room, Kakuzu scoffing when they were out of earshot of the door.

"He should have asked for a 10-page essay with cited quotes and references too." Kakuzu vocalized and Midori laughed while Orochimaru chuckled, "Don't you have to compile all the gathered information too for the archives?" The female threw her head back and sighed in defeat,

"Yes. And I also have to make copies and input anything the other members put in while I was gone." She added on, "I'll make a couple clones and have one or two of them sleep to keep my chakra up; 3 months of work that I have to get done in 4 days or else no one gets a thanksgiving's dinner. On top of it all, I have homework due for my classes." As she spoke, Orochimaru watched as she reached up and touched the back of her neck again, rubbing it in a smooth, clockwise-motion. There it was again, that oddly adorable little quirk. "I'll be putting my chakra control to the test, huh?"

"I'm available until Leader wants me to do another mission, I don't mind helping." Kakuzu offered, "Itachi would probably be willing to help too-" He started saying as Orochimaru's own partner looked over at the group from the kitchen, and alerted them that Itachi had left for a minor mission with Kisame about an hour before the three of them returned to the base. "We could also quit and elope. I choose the last one." Midori nodded her head like she was actually thinking about it as she walked towards the elevators and Orochimaru stopped in the kitchen,

"I wouldn't mind helping either-" "Actually, we got a mission." The Sannin had started before Sasori interjected. Orochimaru gave him a death glare while Midori stopped at the door to Itachi's room, "-When I get back, Midori-chan?" He concluded but she didn't seem to hear him as she alerted Kakuzu that her textbooks were in her mate's room and disappeared inside to get them; along with a shower and a change of clothes. Orochimaru went to his room to do the same and shut the door behind him, sighing as he took off his cloak and tossed it onto the bed. Wherever did you find women who were like Midori? Even if someone told him, he probably would still chase the female.

He pulled his shirt off over his head and caught a glimpse of his own back in the mirror, absently brushing his fingers against the smooth and pasty white flesh. When Itachi and Midori had sex, did she leave markings? Did Itachi? Orochimaru hadn't seen any visible markings on Midori's skin when she had showered the night before but he had never seen the Uchiha male shirtless either. He was so curious to know if she raked those nails of hers down the male's back in the throes of passion, as he brushed his bangs back and tossed the shirt into the clothes hamper near the bathroom door. As he sat down and removed his shoes and socks, he wondered what type of faces she made during intimacy and wondered what the price would be to see those faces.

Even when she moved around the Base, she was always modestly dressed. Nothing too tight and nothing showing too much cleavage. The kimono she had worn was about the most of her chest he'd seen. He was so hungry to know; burdened with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge that she blatantly denied him or gave him drops of information. Whether to tease him or because she struggled against her better nature, he didn't care. Orochimaru realized he held an insatiable thirst for more, as he dropped his pants and turned on the shower.

The things he wouldn't do to have answers was a very small list indeed. He needed to stop thinking about all of it and start thinking of a way to get Itachi's body; maybe one-on-one combat? But- now that he thought about it-

He's never been able to feel Midori's chakra. At all. It always seemed as if she didn''t exist; like she was concealing it, but that would be pointless. Wouldn't it? _I should be fine if I make some clones._ Did she even know how to use jutsu? Orochimaru hadn't seen her kill that man either- and that number that the Leader said? Could that have been her T.C.K. Number? Orochimaru's mind internally screamed at that thought.

Midori. Silver-haired woman, wife of Itachi Uchiha and an absolute sweetheart. Holder of a 184 total confirmed kills.

No. No. No no no. No no no, no no no, NO. Absolutely not. Orochimaru refused to believe it as he shut off the water for his shower and walked out, grabbing a towel and beginning to dry himself off, and put his hair up while he returned to his room to rummage through the closet. Maybe it was the number of missions? He still hadn't decided as he pulled on a new pair of pants over a black pair of briefs, then a new shirt. Orochimaru grabbed his cloak and left the room, Sasori waiting for him, and Midori leaving Itachi's room moments after the sanin did, carrying three heavy books with her, "Orochimaru." He looked over when Midori called his name, "When you get back, I'd really like that report from our mission; Sasori, would you mind covering for him this time?" The two nodded and she smiled happily, "Thank so much." She voiced as Kakuzu yelled from the elevator for her to get a move on and she hustled over, the two other members leaving. Orochimaru buttoned up his cloak all the way and smiled behind the raised collar. Bit by bit.

Thankfully, the mission was easy and quick so they were able to get back to the Base in the evening. Orochimaru quickly showered and dressed before going off to find Midori in her office, wearing a Gackt Band t-shirt and a pair of black, slim-frame glasses, with her long hair put up in a messy bun as she looked from one open textbook to a notepad next to her and jotted down whatever she was doing. Surrounded by stacks of bound papers and loose leaf papers scattered all around her on the floor in some type of chaotic order that only she seemed to know. A shadow clone of her at her desk was already typing away at something at the dusty computer. "Your mission reports, Midori-Chan." Orochimaru said and she glanced up at him under her dark lashes and the glasses; well, it nearly put him over the edge.

"Oh, that was fast. Go ahead and put them-" She looked around the office for some type of spot amid the chaos and Orochimaru glanced at the large open area across from her at the katsu she worked at. To keep the brisk bite of the coming winter air at bay that came in from a window or two someone left open somewhere down the hall. He pointed a finger inquiringly at the glaring gap in her system and she waved a pen-wielding hand at him, "No, Kakuzu's sitting there." After another second of looking around the room and Orochimaru watching her do so, she sighed and offered her free hand to him, "I'll just take it right now- please try not to step on anything." The Sanin complied and handed her the paperwork and she smiled at him appreciatively. "Thanks."

"How much did you get done so far?" He asked, as he slowly made his way to go and sit on the couch that hadn't seen any paperwork warfare and he made sure not to step on anything, while Midori sighed and rested her chin on the textbook on the table,

"I was able to catch up on all the reports and my clone is typing them up for the system now. There's another clone making copies of everything for the Leader." She vocalized and sat back up as she put a hand to her cheek, "I finished the extension report for Kakuzu's report, rough drafted my own report (kind of), and while I was waiting on you to come back, that's when the Leader wanted- this." Midori said and gestured to the papers all around, "He wants Kakuzu and I do go through everything to see what to sell on the Black Market and what not to; and right now I'm finishing my homework while Kakuzu is out getting snacks and energy drinks." The woman sighed as some strands of hair fell out from the strict ponytail and she brushed them back with her free-hand, then glanced at Orochimaru, "If I ever hear anyone- you too- say that I 'don't do anything', I will punch them in the throat." He chuckled,

"No, I can see Midori is very meticulous even if her workspace is a bit- messy." Orochimaru said and offered something that made her smile, "I don't mind helping since I'm back. Anything I could do?"

"If you could just take the copies my clone is making and give them to the Leader, that would be great. It will give me time to finish my homework while the clone helps with the Black Market Info." Midori said and Orochimaru was more than eager to leave the room (and dodge messing anything up) to go do that. Normally he wouldn't bother with such a menial task-

But no one went to the copy room but Midori. So that meant it would just be Orochimaru and her clone.

And as he got to the copy room and looked in, that's exactly what it was; her clone standing at a copy machine that was almost 5 feet tall itself, watching papers being printed. "Midori-Chan." Orochimaru greeted and the clone glanced back at him and watched him try to enter the room, putting up a hand to stop him before he fell into the doorway and then the floor. Tightly wrapped in some type of wire that dug and cut into his clothes and skin every time he moved.

They were wrapped around his throat. Around his arms and chest. Cutting into his wrists and tearing into his legs. He had never known a thread to be so strong or so tight before; nothing so utterly painful as these were. He had even began to bleed and when he took a breath, they hungrily dug in deeper. "You idiot, I told you 'stop'." The Clone berated him and knelt down where he had fallen on his side, to roll him onto his stomach, "Stay still, and take slow breaths." Orochimaru begrudgingly did so before he realized the brush of her fingers against his back. Then the brush of her long hair against his ear as she lean down and whispered to him. "Relax." And He obeyed.

Maybe it was something in her voice that put him at ease. Maybe it was the way her fingers briskly moved and left just the faintest bit of warmth and pressure to even give away that they had been there. What was this strange feeling in his chest again? What was this sense of safety and their air of tranquility that he seemed to enter around her? It was almost as if… the whole world was slowing down. As if it was trying to give him time to process everything; to understand and dissect these little fragments that held no real name and no real evidence of existing. It was so peaceful that it almost seemed as if everything around him was erased, to be drawn and colored back in when she left. He felt so at peace and that was something truly fascinating to him.

Orochimaru had been born in a time of war. He had lost his parents young, adding to his unstable mental state. Even though he excelled at so many things so quickly, perhaps even faster than his teammates, it always felt unclear. Not really unclear, he knew what he was doing but it just felt; like walking on thin ice. Never knowing what parts were thick and what parts were thin. At any moment he could fall through and drown in his own madness, kept at bay by such thin ice but always visible as something squirming and writhing around that was darker than black.. Always there. Always dark.

And then moonlight that shone down in his dark world. Never melting the ice but always seeming to devour whatever darkness it fell upon. He had searched for years and for so long for so many, many things. And the sense of peace that washed over him from this moonlight was one of them. He glanced back at Midori as she diligently worked on the strange wire wrapped around his legs. Steel-blue eyes utterly focused on the task at hand and constantly but gracefully weaving in and out; as if she worked on a loom. Just looked at her, he felt lighter, even as she pulled away, "Sorry. It's a bad habit." Midori said as she stood up with the strange wires in her hand. "Careful standing up." Orochimaru got to his feet and scoffed, about to say something snide before getting up and falling back down, "So, I guess if it's not your ego you don't listen, huh?" Another casual diss past her pale red lips that seemed to come only too naturally to her, but he diverted his attention to his legs. Where the wire had cut into them to make walking difficult if he wasn't careful. "Did the real me sent you for these copies?" The clone asked, holding up the stack of papers towards him as Orochimaru gradually rose to his full height again, "If so, please take them to the Leader." He took them and as soon as she did, the clone vanished. Orochimaru leaned down and used a quick tap of medical jutsu to heal the cuts and wounds he had received from the wire.

The cuts weren't serrated or jagged- they were clean. Precise. As if done with a scalpel and medical expertise, making them easy and quick to heal if someone knew what they were doing. He'd have to ask her about it after turning in the copies- "Where is Midori?" Pein asked as Konan looked at the Sannin and Orochimaru tilted his head,

"She's going through all the collected information with Kakuzu, to see what gets sold on the Black Market." The Sanin answered and Pein stared at him a moment then looked at the pages of copies and started flipping through them, "Anything else?"

"If Kakuzu is still there, tell him he needs to work on the budget too." Pein said as he pulled out a couple papers, "And I'll need a copy of it, as well as a rough scheme for next year." And then he grinned sadistically, "Also, remind them both that this is payback for last Thanksgiving." Konan looked at the redhaired man and asked 'really' before the Leader forced a smile, "Thank you, Orochimaru."

"So _THAT'S_ what this is about?" Kakuzu huffed when Orochimaru reported back to Midori's Office to alert her of a job completed (To acquire praise and brownie points). "What a pain."

"What happened last Thanksgiving?" Orochimaru inquired as he sat down at the table. In his absence, not only had the two been working, the chaotic mess had been cleaned up as if it wasn't here; probably because whatever it had pertained to had been completed. And for completion of his task of good-nature he had been rewarded with the opportunity to assist Midori ( and Kakuzu) with completion of their other tasks. The Sannin was more than happy to oblige, given his wish to put himself in better standing with the female.

"You came just after the holiday... right, Orochimaru?" Midori asked and he nodded, "Well, We had a lot of people when I came so I cooked Thanksgiving dinner and everything went well. However- Pein was taking care of some stuff, so I set his share of the food aside for when he came back. But someone ate it and tossed out the evidence pretty well. So he accused me of not saving any for him, but this is petty even for him." A very small amount of something akin to "guilt" began to seep into Orochimaru's mind. Why?

Because Orochimaru had eaten that food. He had joined the day after Thanksgiving, actually. And just nodded for the sake of brownie points.

He didn't regret it though, the food had been delicious.

So, Orochimaru and Kakuzu worked on the information that needed to be decided on for the Black Market while Midori did everything else, and it went for a few hours. Orochimaru left the room to turn in Kakuzu's rough outline for the budget for the upcoming year and the selected information to be sold, while Kakuzu went out again to get more drinks, giving the room to Midori who still occupied it when Orochimaru returned. He had went back to his room and grabbed his spare akatsuki cloak to keep some of the chill off his back. She had fallen asleep on one of the thick information books, her textbook set aside when she had finished her homework, and the room's light darkened in the two men's absence. Orochimaru knelt down and covered her with his cloak in lieu of a blanket, before sliding his legs under the katsu again to her right, laying his head on the table and just watched her. Observing the light on her features in the darkened room and just watching her sleep. It was relaxing enough to even get him to close his eyes.

And as he drifted off into his own accidental slumber, the image of moonlight shining down on black ice hung prominently in his mind's eye, before he drifted off into a dreamless and deep sleep.

Aware that it wasn't just "bit by bit" any longer, but now "more and more".


	15. My First Mission

Mitsuki's Adventures

Chapter 11- My First Mission

The water had been clear and crisp and made leading his father into the strange domain even easier. It was tricky to lead him down the dark halls however but Mitsuki knew where to go. Or rather, he seemed to feel it. Feel some sort of- strange tug- down twists and turns he vaguely remembered, until they led the two into the room with the strange metal containers that he remembered waking up from.

The room was illuminated with a strange neon green light from the fluid flowing freely in the strange and transparent tubes that were interwoven into the ceiling. "This one!" Mitsuki said and ran forward, stopping at one of the various pods and his father followed. "She's still here." His Father looked around on the floor,

"I doubt it." His Father voiced and Mitsuki looked at him before looking at the floor. Two sets of footprints in the strange liquid were on the ground; one was definitely Mitsuki's and another- "Come." His father said urgently and pulled his son with him behind one of the pods, as three cloaked figures came into the room from another entrance. His Father pulled him close as they watched the figures go to the pod his mother was in, two of them bending over and pushing up the lid to hold it open, as another took their cloak off and reached in. They wrapped the female up in their cloak and lifted her out of the pod. She stirred and started to wake up as the other two dropped the lid- before one of them produced a syringe and quickly injected its contents into her as she gasped in pain. When the syringe was emptied, the figure pulled it out from her and the group carried her off as Mitsuki gripped his Father's arm tightly. "It's not her, Mitsuki." Mituki looked at his Father who looked back at him, "Lead the way." His son looked a bit flustered,

"I-I can't- They took Mom- and I-!" Mitsuki stammered before his Father put a hand on his shoulder. He took several deep breaths to try and calm down and let his father's words sink in deep into his mind. That it wasn't her. That the being those cloaked figures has taken from the pod wasn't his mother. "It wasn't her." He said to himself and his father waited until he had calmed down before adding his own form of encouragement.

"Lead me." His Father said simply and Mitsuki looked at him, nodding, then went back to the two tracks of footprints before following the slightly larger tracks. Maybe 10 feet or so down another corridor, they took a faint turn as they began to dwindle and the two males followed it before stopping.

The remnants of his Mother's kimono and the ornaments that had been in her hair, were in a sloppy and unceremonious pile upon the floor; sopping wet with the strange fluid. And two marks that looked like someone had wiped their feet. Mitsuki's heart lifted and his father pulled out a kunai from his belt and used the edge of it to search through the pile. Mitsuki looked around for more evidence to where she could have gone and noticed a single drop heading towards a corridor back towards the room from before. "What was mom's specialty in the Akatsuki?" His father stood up and shrugged. "You don't know?"

"Now's not the time." His Father answered and Mitsuki nodded with renewed determination, and Mitsuki led them back to the room from before and looked around for new evidence-

A few drops of water from a pod closer to the hallway where the figures had taken the doppelganger of his mother.

Mitsuki, wrapped up in his own feelings of hope and happiness, ran straight toward the only possible route that his mother could have gone down. He had almost crossed the doorless threshold into the hallway too before his father had gotten a handful of his son's kimono and roughly pulled him backwards. Mitsuki collected himself though to find his Father standing over him, "Dad-" He started before something warm trickled down his face and he rose a hand to his cheek, then brought it to his face. Red blood on his fingers. "What."

"It's your mother's." His Father said simply and took the same kunai he had used to investigate the pile of clothes earlier, and tossed it at the dark hallway path-

However, the kunai was quickly and violently ricocheted back into the wall opposite of the room. The faint glimmer of taut strings disappearing back into the darkness.

"Mom… Mom did that?" Mitsuki asked as he struggled to imagine his mother doing it. His Father put a hand to Mitsuki's face and healed his wound,

"Perhaps unintentionally." His Father mused as Mitsuki collected himself while his Father went over and collected his kunai from being embedded into the wall so deeply that it left an impression. "If you pay attention, you can smell them." Mitsuki looked so confused and moved closer to the threads before sniffing the air. The smell of myrrh and frankincense was blocking- he looked around the room then the blocked corridor. It was coming from the strings and it was faint. But not enough to where it didn't go unnoticed if you looked for it.

Mitsuki looked around the dark room, noting the corridor to the east that was blocked, and they came from the corridor to the west, leaving only the north corridor where they had followed the footprints, to be explored. He went forward and his father followed silently as Mitsuki tried to keep an eye out for more blocked corridors by tossing shuriken into them. If they returned to his hands, they were blocked and if they didn't, the two travelled down them before coming to a large room and they stopped. A long table occupied the room, beneath a huge glass window that occupied almost the whole wall- only two chairs at either end of the table.

The whole castle had been one big and unnerving maze of black, polished stone and dark maroon furniture; it even crossed his mind that it might be stuff his mother would like. But it was quiet. Too quiet. He looked out the window as his Father spoke, "We'll rest here for a little bit." Mitsuki closed his eyes and tried to feel out if there was anyone nearby. Oddly enough, he could only feel two sources of chakra- his Father's, and one far deeper in the Castle than the both of them currently were. Now that he thought about it, he had never been able to sense his Mother's chakra. Always his Father's. It was intense and foreboding; like the creeping of a dark a restless night. Mitsuki opened his eyes again and his Father was looking around the room with disinterest and disgust; as if it pissed him off just breathing in the air. The room was straightforward with one entrance in the west and east side and no doors, just clean-cut open rectangular archways that gave away to inky darkness, kept at bay why several dim orbs of bluish-white light.

"So- what type of jutsus does mom use?" Mitsuki inquired and his father looked at him, "Does she have and special ones?"

"I don't know." His father replied and Mitsuki was actually a bit shocked. "I believe she might have mentioned something about having two different summons...however, I wouldn't know what they are." Orochimaru saw the surprised look on his son's face before frowning, "So- I've never really seen her fight."

"But- you guys have been together for a long time, right? I'm sure there was sometime where she could have fought-" Mitsuki said as he tried to fathom his all-knowing and ever-knowledge-hungry father drawing a blank; especially on the topic of his mother.

"Oh, there's been plenty of times, however, my main concern was getting your mother and your elder brother to safety and keeping them out of the way." His father answered nonchalantly, "As long as your Mother, your brother, and you were safe, I didn't particularly care for much else." As Mitsuki revelled in his father's words, his father looked down the archway before them and put his arm out in front of his son,

The sound of a soft hiss in the dark of the unknown hallway, filling the room.

And the grating pressure of chakra stronger than Mitsuki had ever felt before, weighing his entire frame and chest, making it hard to breathe.

Two very large white creatures, began to come into the dim light that glowed in the room. Their heads alone were as tall as a toddler and seemed to be 2 or 3 feet long. They looked like snakes only; much, much meaner, with sharp spines on their heads. And where eyes would sit normally in large eyeholes roughly the size of Mitsuki's head, there were deep gashes and claw marks. As if something had gouged out the eyes of the creatures that entered the room and separated. One moving around the backside of the long dining room table and blocking the way the two males had come from, and the over pulling it's thick reptilian body to block the other exit. Even their bodies were thicker than a old tree trunk. "Dad." Mitsuki murmured and Orochimaru ushered his son behind him, as one of the creatures rose itself up and sauntered forward a bit, a long black and forked tongue flicking at the air.

Orochimaru bit his thumb and smeared blood on his summoning tattoo under his sleeve, summoning two giant cobras; but they were smaller than the white snake-like creatures. As he protectively continued to usher his child behind him, the cobras hissed angrily at the paler creatures and lashed out. An actually quickly dodged and met by both creatures opening jaws wide enough to devour a young elephant whole; lined with blade-sharp teeth as long as Mitsuki's forearm, and clamped down on the cobra's heads from the side.

With a sickening and nausea-inducing series of crunches, the white snakes crushed the cobra's skulls and tipped their heads back as they devoured the opposing reptiles whole. Leaving a few meager drops of blood as evidence that the cobras his father had summoned to their aid, had ever existed. "Mmm." One of them grumbled and the other pale snake hissed, "I forgot the taste of snake meat."

The two serpents reared up, and Mitsuki noticed the one to their right had the black-side of the Ying-Yang symbol, and the other serpent had the white version on a black patch of scaled on it's rough forehead. "I can hear your heartbeat; but it won't for long." One of the serpents growled aggressively before both pale monstrosities lashed out at the two males.


End file.
